Pirates of Cyberia
by Razer Cannon
Summary: Follows the Planet Express team after they dive into the wormhole at the end of ITWGY.
1. Chapter 1

**THE PIRATES OF CYBERIA**

**By Razer Cannon**

INTRO: Now with 25% more radioactivity!

Part 1

The spaceship spat out of the mouth of the wormhole like a seed from a rotten fruit. The whale-oil engines burned hot, and the ship kept accelerating.

"Scanning the area – nothing dangerous detected," Captain Turanga Leela said, reviewing the display. "Professor, can you review the star charts and see if you can find where we came out? Bender, check the hold and make sure all cargo is still secured. Amy, go with Bender and make sure he doesn't steal anything we need to live."

The one-eyed woman squeezed Fry's hand and gave him a smile. "Fry, can you get up to the turret in case we need to shoot quickly?"

Fry gave her a lop-sided grin and saluted. "Aye aye, Captain!" He headed out the door, dragging a complaining Bender out with him. Amy kissed Kif, and started to turn to leave. Kif grabbed her around the waist and said to Leela, "Captain, with permission I'd like to go with my Fon-Fon-Ru."

Leela smiled wistfully. "Permission granted."

Amy squealed, and the two left the bridge arm-in-arm.

"Good news, everyone!" the Professor exclaimed.

Hermes and Leela looked at each other in concern, and then Leela said, "Have you pinpointed our location, Professor?"

"Whaa? Oh, my, no. But looking over the star maps let me complete your astrology chart, Hermes. According to this, today is a good day for you to start new undertakings, old friend!"

"Oh Lord," Leela said, covering her eye with a free hand.

"Listen up, you geriatric buffoon," LaBarbara said, "you'd betta get crackin'. Where are we?"

"Wife, the professor is doing what 'e can," Hermes said. "It's not his fault that he's older than the dirt that dirt rests on."

"Scruffy suggests using that Cepheid variable up ahead as a guide star," the mustachioed janitor at the tactical station said laconically.

"My god, the mysterious stranger is right!" the professor said. "We can use the Cepheid as a standard candle and orient our star charts around it."

"How long will it take, Professor?" Leela axed.

"Huh? Oh, I did it already when we arrived," the professor said absently. "This astrology thing was a lot more interesting, though. Did you know that Hermes and Calculon have the same sign?"

"Where are we, professor?!"

"813 million light-years from Earth; somewhere in the Pisces-Cetus A supercluster!" The old scientist looked up and light from the display glinted an eerie green on his thick glasses. "We're in the uncharted depths of the Universe…"

"Oh, stop dat, ya old goat," Hermes said, turning the display from the 'spooky' setting.

"Alright," Leela said, thinking. "We need to find a habitable planet to top off our food and water stores. Anything else?"

"We haf to get back through the wormhole!" LaBarbara cried. "What about me Dwight?"

"And Cubert does need someone to watch after him," the Professor mused.

_And my parents_, Leela thought to herself. She shook herself. "Dammit, if we go back that idiot Brannigan will just lock us up again. We need supplies, and we need a plan. The wormhole will still be here when we need to go back."

Fry's voice crackled over the inter-ship com. "Incoming bogeys, Leela!"

"Oh, Lord…" She checked the scope. Six fast, wicked looking shapes, coming in hot toward the Planet Express ship. "Those don't look friendly."

"They're not," the Professor said, in a rare moment of lucidity. "They are most definitely not. Captain Turanga, get us out of here!"

"What are they?" Leela axed.

At that moment energy bolts shot from the lead pair of ships and buffeted the Planet Express.

"No time! Run!" the Professor exclaimed.

Leela threw the ship into a sprint. "Fry – return fire!"

"Roger!" the twentieth-century man said. Laser bolts flashed back from the turret toward the pursuing ships.

"The Cyberians are relentless, Leela – we'll have to try to lose them somewhere," the Professor warned.

Leela decided not to quiz the old man on his knowledge, and to focus on staying alive. "Where are we going to hide? There's nothing out here but the wormhole!"

"What's dat?" Hermes said, pointing out a feature in the swirling vortex of the wormhole.

Leela shook her head. The professor nodded. "Ah, yes – that's the exotic matter struts the builders used to keep the wormhole throat open."

"Exotic matter?" Leela said.

"Builders?" Hermes axed.

"Of course builders," the Professor said irritably. "What do you think the Cyberians are doing here, gardening?"

"Can we hide behind it?" Leela asked, trying to suppress her anger.

"Yes, the exotic matter should disrupt their sensors," the Professor said.

"Right." Leela pulled hard on the controls and the Planet Express ship swooped toward the dull gleaming pipes of exotic matter threaded through the wormhole. Suddenly, the ship rocked and Leela fought with the controls as they were buffeted by – something.

"Careful, now, Leela," the professor warned. "Gravity does funny things around exotic matter."

"_Now_ he tells me," she muttered under her breath, taking a firmer grip on the controls. Toggling on the intercom, she spoke. "All hands, secure for evasive maneuvers."

"_Now_ she tells me," she could hear Amy respond.

Leela scowled, and jammed the thrusters harder. A flurry of energy bolts flashed through the space they had just occupied, and splashed against the exotic matter strut. As the Planet Express Ship rushed toward the strut, the vast size of the object began to be clear.

"Holy crap," Fry said over the intercom. "It's as big as the Moon!"

"Oh, bosh," the Professor said. "Each strut's about six hundred kilometers long, and fifty kilometers thick." He finished on an ominous tone, "That's no Moon."

"Leela, they've launched some sort of missile!" Hermes exclaimed.

Leela checked the scanner – incoming at high acceleration. She pushed the engines to maximum, and raced toward the shadow of the strut.

"Hold your evasive maneuvers, Leela – I can hit it if you give me a clean shot!" Fry insisted from the turret.

"And that gives them a clean shot," she snapped back. "Just focus on keeping them occupied."

The Planet Express ship hugged the curve of the strut, the missile close behind them. Fry let loose with a barrage from the laser cannon, grazing the side of the missile and knocking it into the strut.

The warhead detonated with a flash which ate into the side of the strut, blotting out everything else from view.

"Oh, that's bad," the professor said as the silent glowing bloom of light reached for them.

"What is it?" Leela yelled, trying to squeeze every bit of acceleration from the creaking cargo hauler.

"Anti-matter warhead, those idiots. The only thing that could destabilize the exotic matter that keeps the wormhole open."

In utter, eerie silence the strut they were racing away from snapped and began to shatter, the fragments slowly tumbling into a floating haze of glowing, drifting spars.

The swirling void of the wormhole began to be shot through with blue electrical lighting, and the other exotic matter beams began trembling and flexing.

"Scruffy thinks we'd better get out of here." Scruffy said. "If the struts go – "

"The wormhole mouth will catastrophically collapse, yes," the Professor said sadly. "Those fools! Years of effort undone with a casual nova bomb."

As the Planet Express ship flew away, the remaining struts broke and fragmented, and the sharp outlines of the wormhole began to waver.

"What happens when it collapses?" axed Hermes.

"Oh, nothing nearly as bad as two neutron stars colliding," the Professor said, waving his hand. "A supra-lethal gamma ray burst, deadly out to say, oh, fifteen light years. Maybe ten. What do I look like, a mad scientist who regularly calculates blast radii?"

"Here it comes!" Leela yelled. The wormhole's circle of violet unreality wavered again, and then contracted like a rubber band snapping.

Suddenly the stars streaked, the wormhole and the other Cyberian ships vanishing behind them.

"Hey – where was the explosion?" Fry said quizzically over the intercom.

"We went to translight before it blew," Leela said curtly.

"Ah, bummer – I wanted to see it!" Fry sounded like he'd missed the Freedom Day fireworks.

Leela rolled her eyes. _Fry_, she thought. "Gamma rays travel at light speed. If you could see the blast, you'd be dead."

She turned the intercom to all-ship. "Everyone okay?" she axed.

Amy, Kif, Fry and Bender gave the okay from their various locations.

"That was quick thinking, Captain Turanga," the Professor said. "There may be a job with my company for you."

Leela sighed and turned on the autopilot. "The scanner detected a habitable planet approximately eight point four light years from the wormhole; I've set course for there. Hopefully we can re-provision, and take stock of our…situation." She stood and stretched.

"Our situation," Hermes echoed mournfully.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Leela said, feeling inadequate.

LaBarbara began sobbing as the loss of their way home – back to their families – hit her fully. Leela's heart ached for her. She had only lost her parents – LaBarbara had lost her child. She couldn't imagine what _that_ felt like.

"I promise you all," Leela said with a conviction she did not feel, "we _will_ find a way home." She looked around the bridge, locking eyes with each of them. "But first, we have things to take care of. Amy, will you take command, please?" She started toward the door. "I'm going to take a nap – it's been a _long_ day."

"You were very inspiring on the bridge," Fry assured Leela, "but I thought you said you were going to take a _nap_?"

Leela pulled a pillow out from under his mop of orange hair and smacked him with it lightly. "Are you complaining?" she axed.

"Uh, no, no of course not," he said quickly. "You have had a long day, though – jail break, crashing Wong's implosion and getting us away from Brannigan…"

"True," she said sleepily. "You have helped me…relax, though."

They were curled up together on the bed in Leela's cabin, basking in the afterglow. Leela sighed and pressed her head tighter to Fry's naked chest, listening to his heartbeat slowing from its previous frantic pace.

Fry stroked his fingers through her long, thick purple hair. He was lost in thought. Suddenly, he said, "I'm sorry."

"Huh? For what?"

"I'm sorry you got caught because of me. I'm sorry you were locked up because of me."

"I wasn't locked up because of _you_, Fry. I was locked up because of _me_ – I knew the risks, and I did what I thought was right." Leela's lips curved up in a smile. "I guess we both did what we thought was right. Someday you're going to have to tell me what the hell was going on out there, Fry."

"An old, old war was ending, Leela. I look forward to telling you that story. Hell, I'm glad I _can_ tell you this story – it's one I finally was allowed to remember." He kissed the top of her head. "But for now, I'd just like to hold you."

"I'd like that very much," she said softly. They were silent for a moment, and then she said, "You know what's funny?"

"Huh?"

She lifted her head to look directly into Fry's eyes. "That was great, Fry – it was everything I ever dreamed of…and I did dream of it a lot."

Fry blushed. "But, what's so funny?"

"This can't have been our first time. We were getting married, remember?"

Fry thought for a moment, and then let out a short laugh.

"We may have done…it…dozens of times, you know?" Leela said.

"But we can't remember," they said in unison.

"Huh. That is pretty funny," Fry said. His voice softened. "I'm glad I remember this time."

Leela smirked. "And all the next times," she said, kissing him.

After a while, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

"What's the situation, Amy?" Leela said as she strode onto the bridge, trying to surreptitiously adjust her bra. Fry had insisted on doing the clasps in the back for her, and she was sure he had misaligned them.

"We may have a problem," Amy said from the command chair.

"Hey, Big Boots! Seen Fry around? It's time for our daily chug contest and I can't figure out where he's hiding!" Bender was seated on the sofa, puffing away at a Zuban cigar.

Leela blushed. "He's…I don't know where he is," she finished lamely.

She ignored the robot and stood next to Amy. The intern pointed at the long-range scanner. "We're about an hour from the planet, but I've detected these in orbit."

Leela saw the unmistakable images of Cyberian raiders in orbit around the planet. "Aw, crap – not these guys again." She buzzed the Professor on the intercom. "Professor, please come to bridge. I think we need to talk – now."

"Yes, I know about the Cyberians," the Professor admitted. The rest of the Planet Express team was gathered around him on the bridge, as he wandered about, looking at various devices, almost as if he did not wish to face his memories.

"Those of you familiar with ancient history will remember learning of a time in the 21st century when mankind was enslaved by evil cyborgs."

"Hey – that doesn't ring any bells," said Fry.

"Quiet, you! Anyway, the rule of the cyborgs was finally thrown off and mankind was liberated. However, there were some cyborgs left. They fled Earth, and the galaxy itself, by escaping through that wormhole. They have not returned since, and no one has had contact with them…until today."

Leela narrowed her eye. "So these are the descendants of the same psychopathic cyborgs who enslaved the Earth? That doesn't sound promising."

Amy shivered. "I heard horrible stories of the experiments they would perform on people. It looks like they've got that planet surrounded! What are we going to do?"

Bender wailed, "Oh your god! These are the folks that ruined perfectly good robot parts by merging them with meatbags! It's - it's monstrous!"

"Oh, relax you bunch of nervous Nancies," the Professor said crossly. "I can get us past the Cyberian patrols and onto the planet easily. What we do from there is more difficult."

"What do you mean?" Amy axed.

"That planet is going to be hit with a burst of gamma radiation which'll fry anything that processes the local equivalent of ATP. The biosphere'll be wiped out," the Professor said, gesticulating wildly. "We might want to take samples from some wildlife to preserve them – for experimentation, of course."

"Animals?" Leela said.

"Uh, guys," Amy interrupted. "It might be a little more complicated than taking some DNA samples."

The crew turned to her and she threw the scanner's output onto the main screen.

Even from their distance from the planet, they could clearly see large, smoky cities perched on the edges of the various islands of the planet's vast sea, and small, wooden sailing ships plying the sea lanes between the ports.

"They have about eight years and five months," the Professor said.

The others said nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

"Our cloaking shield seems to be working," Leela said, keeping the power to the engines low.

"They're ignoring us," Amy confirmed from her station.

"Should I get to the turret?" Fry axed from where he was standing behind Leela. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait," Leela said. "We're just a figment of their imagination." She shot Fry a smile to show him she appreciated his presence

"This is just…unnatural," Bender whined. "I don't feel good about this, and aren't my feelings the most important?"

The Planet Express ship cruised toward the ocean world, covered in a white ghost sheet. The Cyberian raiders circled the planet slowly, oblivious to the disguised cargo ship.

The Professor told them the Cyberians had the same cognitive blind spot as the robot guards of the Near-Death Star, and so the same disguise worked. They didn't accept the existence of ghosts, and they wouldn't see them.

So now the ghostly Planet Express ship, existence firmly rejected by the Cyberian pickets, slipped through their sensors and began to glow as it entered the doomed planet's atmosphere.

"This 'cloaking shield' is heat resistant, right?" Kif axed nervously as Amy studied the indicators.

"What? Of course not," the Professor scoffed. "Why would it be?"

"Oh Lord," Leela said, covering her eye with a hand. She shook her head. Outside the main window, the white sheet was crisping into ash, already tattered by the re-entry heat. She turned on the all-ship intercom. "This is your Captain speaking – please buckle up for a bumpy ride."

"Only one raider in range, Leela," Amy said.

"Come on, hold it together," Leela whispered, trying to flatten out their insertion profile to reduce the heat strain on the cloak.

The last bits of the tattered cloak whisked away as ash in a fire. Within moments, Amy shouted, "It's heading right for us!"

"Hang on!" Leela shouted, turning the ship sharply to avoid expected fire.

"I'll get to the turret!" Fry said, running to the bridge door.

The ship shook with a sudden hit from a Cyberian energy cannon. Fry tumbled across into Amy, who shrieked and crashed into a pile of parts the professor had been working on. Alarms flashed as Scruffy said, "Turret's gone; direct hit."

"Bastards!" Leela looked at her magazine display. The Professor had only loaded four torpedoes; he had been pressed for room. Leela was loath to use any without access to replacements.

"Hang on," she grunted, and slammed the ship down toward the roiling sea.

The Planet Express ship dove through the atmosphere, leveling off to within 50 meters of the water. The Cyberian raced after it, wild shots plowing into waves and sending plumes of steam into the air.

The next blast from the Cyberian ship struck the Planet Express in the rear, shaking the cargo hauler.

"Crap!" Leela yelled. "I'm getting an emergency alert from the cargo hold."

Hermes read off his display. "Someting's giving a helluva radiation bath in dere, Leela."

The Professor leaned over Hermes' shoulder and read the same screen. "Oh, that's just the hydrogen implosion core."

"The hydrogen what?" Leela asked. She was wrestling the ship as it skimmed over the sea, the Cyberian raider right behind it.

"Implosion core, you simpleton," the professor said crossly. "Why don't you ever listen to me?"

Leela's eye narrowed. "What is it, you old maniac?"

"What's what?"

"The...hydrogen...implosion..._core_."

"Oh, that. It's just a doomsday device I brought along in case we needed to blow up Leo Wong's base."

"You mean _Mars_?" Amy gasped.  
"Oh, no. It's just a teeny doomsday device. Really more of a bad day device. It wouldn't do more than level a small state; say New New Jersey."

"Why's it bathing my cargo hold in ionizing radiation?" Leela asked sharply.

"Ionizing radiation! Good god, it only does that when it's ready to detonate!"

"Oh, Lord," Leela said tiredly. She glanced around the room quickly. "Okay, I've got an idea to kill two owls with one stone. We'll push the core out of the cargo hold, and maybe when it blows it'll catch the raider." Leela took a deep breath, and said "Amy, take the helm. I've got to do something about that bomb."

She started to get up when Fry spoke up. "Leela – you're the best pilot we've got. You stay at the wheel, Bender and I'll deal with the bomb."

"But -"

"No buts," Fry said. "Keep avoiding their shots. Bender," he said to his friend, "let's go."

"What's with the 'we,' meatbag?"

Fry said, "It's got to be us; we're the strongest onboard other than Leela, and she's got the best chance of keeping us alive if she flies."

"I _hate _itwhen skintubes use logic," Bender grumbled. "It ain't natural."

"Fry," Leela said, trying to keep her voice level. "Take one of the professor's force field belts and - be careful."

Fry flashed his patented goofy smile.

"Yeah, love you too, One-Eye," Bender said sarcastically.

-------

"We're in the hold, Leela," Fry said. "Open the hatch."

On the bridge, Leela nodded to Amy and tightened her grip on the wheel. Amy snapped a switch, and the ship's airframe groaned as the cargo door at the rear cranked down.

Leela held the ship straight as it jerked and buffeted. "I've got her steady," Leela said.

"Go ahead, Fry," Amy announced.

Back in the hold, Fry and Bender snapped off the restraining ties on the pallet holding the implosion core, and started to push the whole package back toward the gaping maw of the cargo door.

Sudden flashes lit the dark sky, and the ship swayed again from the airbursts of near-hits.

"You alright down there?" Leela's worried voice said over the intercom.

"Just peachy," Fry said, rubbing a massive bruise on his arm where he had fallen against another crate of supplies. He had to admit the professor and Hermes had loaded the ship for all manner of contingencies when they had broken the Feministas out of jail; unfortunately, the crowded cargo hold was making getting the core out rather difficult.

After another ten minutes of groaning and sweating, the two friends got the pallet to the threshold.

"Whew," Fry said, wiping his forehead. "I have _got_ to start working out."

"You've been saying that for as long as I've known you, sweatsock," Bender said, lighting a cigar. "I ain't seen you lift a weight yet – other than a 12 ounce one."

"Thanks, buddy," Fry mumbled. He raised his voice for the intercom. "We're in position, Leela."

Back on the bridge, Leela brought the ship's emergency power booster on line. "On the count of five, boys," she said.

"One."

Amy and Kif intertwined hands.

"Two."

LaBarbara and Hermes clutched at each other.

"Three."

Scruffy opened one of Bender's spare beers.

"Four."

Fry and Bender braced their backs against the implosion core.

"Five."

The human and robot pair shoved with all their might and the pallet tipped over the lip and slid on its own into the dark night. Meanwhile, Leela slammed on the power booster, sending the ship racing away.

At that very moment, a Cyberian laser blast slammed into the Planet Express' dorsal fin, sending the ship twirling in its flight path.

A hail of loose boxes, papers and other junk swirled through the hold and streamed out of the back of the hold. Bender grabbed hold of a stanchion with one manipulator, and used his other extensor arm to grab the collar of Fry's jacket.

"Amy – close the door!" Leela yelled, but Amy was already toggling the cargo door closed.

As Leela righted the ship, Bender dropped to the ground and let go of the stanchion. "Oh yeah, baby – who's great? Bender's great!" he said. Feeling magnanimous, he said "Fry, you weren't too bad yourself." He turned to his friend.

In his other manipulator Bender held only the torn collar of Fry's red jacket.

"Oh oh." Bender said. "Big Boots isn't going to be too happy about this."

"Happy about what?" axed Leela over the intercom.

"How attached were you to the red-headed meatbag, Big Boots?" Bender axed. "You seemed to get over him pretty quick before."

"Bender, where's Fry?" Leela axed in a tight voice.

"Funny story, that happens to show me in a good light - " Bender started.

The ship banked sharply as Leela brought it around.

"What are you doing, woman?" the Professor exclaimed.

"Getting Fry," Leela said grimly. She locked her eyes on the scanner.

"The bomb is going to explode!"

"All the more reason to hurry up," Leela said.

"He's gone," Hermes said, putting a hand on her arm.

Leela drove an elbow into Hermes' gut, knocking the bureaucrat onto the ground. "Don't touch me," she said absently, never taking her eyes off the scanner.

"Damn it, you crazy cyclops," the Professor said. "You'll never – "

A flash lit up the sky, throwing the crew's shadows starkly across the deck and walls. They were racing toward a sudden monstrous fiery waterspout.

"Climb, dammit!" the Professor shouted.

"Leela – " Amy screamed. Kif's skin had morphed to the color of the bridge's interior.

Leela let out an anguished wail and pulled the controls up, sending the Planet Express ship shooting into the sky and flipping it over, away from the blast. A glowing fireball swelled behind them, sending boiling sea water and flames into the sky. The ship barely outraced the flaming, all-consuming blast front, shaking from the howling winds.

"No sign of the raider," Scruffy said helpfully.

Leela leveled the ship out in the stratosphere, sending it rocketing toward the sunrise of the alien world. When the ship stopped shaking, she engaged the autopilot and stood up stiffly. Her eye gleamed wetly, and her cheeks were red. Her hands clenched and unclenched reflexively. She looked at each of them for a moment.

"I'm going to my cabin," she announced flatly.

"Leela," Amy started, sure she should say something but unsure of what.

Leela brushed past her, marching toward the door. Kif caught at her elbow, and she slowed for a moment, staring at the little green alien.

"I'm sorry," Kif said mournfully. Leela simply nodded at him in acknowledgment, and started moving again.

The rest of the Planet Express team looked around at each other as she stalked out of the bridge, the door hissing shut behind her.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3

The crew spent a few minutes making sure the ship was on track and pursuit had indeed been shaken. Amy found concentrating on the controls difficult, however. _Ghud, Fry's gone_, she thought. She blinked back a tear. The sweet twentieth century man had been a friend for a long time and it was painful for Amy to imagine him not being around anymore.

It was more painful, of course, for someone else. "Poor Leela," Amy whispered to herself as her hands ran through a systems checklist almost automatically. She didn't know what to do! _Gleesh, Amy_, she thought to herself, _anything would be better than nothing. _She suddenly stood up. "I'd better go check on - " she said.

"I'll go with you," Kif immediately interjected.

Everyone was surprised when the Professor spoke up. "No, my little green friend, I'll go with Ms. Wong."

The two left the bridge, and the others took up uncomfortable stations.

-------

"Go away," Leela said listlessly as Amy and the Professor hit the door chime.

"Leela, you shouldn't be alone," Amy said insistently.

"Screw off," Leela said again without any emotion in her voice.

"Leela, I'm going to need your help to calibrate this chip-hunting sensor to find my uncle," the Professor said.

Amy shot him a vicious look.

"Are you trying to piss me off?" Leela said, anger returning to her voice. The door slid open and the cyclops stepped out into the hall. Her hair was a rat's nest of tangles, and her eye was puffy and red.

The professor held up a blinking gadget. "Oh my, no. But if you could hold off on your temper tantrum for a moment, I can tell you Fry is alive and we might just be able to find him."

Leela studied the old scientist, trying to determine whether he was off his medication. Amy held her breath as the starship captain leaned forward, both arms out.

Leela wrapped her arms around the Professor and hugged him tight. "Thank you," she breathed into his ear. The old man blushed slightly.

Leela straightened up and said, "So what's next?"

-------

Fry felt like he fell for a long time, but actually it was only three point three seconds. He hit the water hard, but the Farnsworth Personal Force Field absorbed most of the killing blow – and Fry didn't remember any of it, being knocked unconscious. It was sheer luck that the detonation of the hydrogen implosion core caught the force-field bubble he was in like a leaf and flung him even further out to safety; otherwise he would have sunk deeper into the water and drowned, or been incinerated by the high-pressure steam blast from the explosion. Even with the field protecting him, he still suffered some grievous injuries.

He floated for a while on a bubble of energy formed by the FPFF, dead to the world. After while the power cell in the forcefield belt ran out, and he floated in the sea. After even more time passed, the hot sun beating on his face woke him up.

Fry opened his salt-crusted eyes. "Whaa?" he said.

"So you're finally awake," said the pirate looming over him.

_Pirate_? Fry tried to sit up. He immediately tipped over. "Oof."

The pirate looked at him critically. He was dressed rather stereotypically, with a bandanna on his greasy hair, a large iron hoop through his left ear, and a crusty lace-trimmed greatcoat over his bulky frame. Twin sabers were thrust through his belt, and tucked into a breast pocket was a modern-looking laser pistol.

"Gonna live?" the pirate asked him conversationally.

Fry tried to rise up, but the rocking of the wooden deck he was on did not help. _Wooden deck?_ He paused, propping himself up by his arms. "Don't see that I have a choice, really," he said, almost to himself. Suddenly he noticed an odd feeling in his right hand. With some more thought, Fry realized he could not feel his right hand.

Fry looked down and saw his right hand was gone, replaced by a wooden, whittled hook grafted onto his wrist. "Oh," he said. "That's kinda cool!"

The pirate let out a hearty bellow. "I like the cut of your jib, matey. What's your moniker?"

Fry coughed up some seawater, and managed to stand. "My what?"

"Your name, man! Your name! I be Smiling Pratt, captain of this here sloop _Betty Sue_." The pirate gestured around him.

"Oh. I'm Fry. Pleased to meet you," Fry said. He took in the small circle of crewman around him, all dressed in odds-and-ends but none as flamboyant as Pratt. "So…you're pirates, huh?"

"Why yes, Fry! And we're on a mission to make a little booty," Pratt said. "I think you'd be a good addition to our crew. Whadda you say?"

_Quite an introduction_, Fry thought to himself. _Hmm, what would Leela do here?_ "My other choice is…?"

"We'd be happy to put you back in the sea," the pirate captain said cheerfully.

Even Fry could take a hint – if it was blunt enough.

"Crewman Fry reporting for duty!" Fry said, saluting. Luckily he used his left hand, so that he didn't gouge out an eye.

-------

Over the next few days, Fry learned the basics of crewing of a sailing ship. He also ran up and down lines, lifted barrels and hauled pulleys with the other men, which exhausted him but also started to give him some endurance.

Learning to handle his hook was a challenge, too. Fry was told when the crew had hauled him out of the water, he had been missing his right hand – apparently lost in the blast. Luckily, his wound had seared shut and he had not lost much blood. The ship's barber had sown the hook on – a procedure he had much experience with – and Fry was little worse for wear. _Other_, he thought, _than how I scratch_.

After two days of salt pork, hard tack and watered rum (all of which was better than Bender's cooking), he looked up one day from where he was practicing a knot to see Pratt studying him.

"Ahoy, there, Fry."

"Captain." Fry saluted. "What up?"

"Fry, we haven't talked about where we're sailing or what we're doing."

Fry nodded.

"Well, we'll be making a raid tomorrow."

"Like, on a ship?"

"Indeed. We're chasing a merchantman now, loaded with valuable trading metal."

"Are you going to – hurt anyone?" Fry asked.

"No one who ain't deserve it, boy." The man guffawed and, seeing the look on Fry's face, said, "Naw, we'll be real careful. The merchant sailors don't put up a fight if they know we won't hurt 'em."

"Ah," Fry said. He thought for a long moment. "I suppose that makes sense." He changed the subject. "Look, Captain, when we make landfall, I do have to look for my friends."

Pratt rubbed his chin and looked at Fry. "Shouldn't they have come looking for you?"

Fry didn't say anything. _They are! I know it! _he thought.

"You're not like the rest of us, here, Fry," Pratt said finally.

"Whadda you mean, Cap'n?"

Pratt smiled ferociously at him, living up to his nickname. "You still have hope." The pirate left him alone for the rest of the day.

That night, Fry lay back on the deck and stared at the unfamiliar stars of the inky black sky. _I'm going to find you_, he thought to himself. _I think about you every minute_. _I'm coming, Leela_.

-------

The Planet Express ship raced over the waves, as they followed the directional guide from the Professor's chip tracker.

"Oh, now no one's complaining that I put trackers in everyone's career chips," the scientist snickered.

Amy pointed to sandy beach on the island they were rapidly approaching, and to the line of jungle that marched across it. "In those trees somewhere, according to this thing."

_Oh, god, let him be okay_, Leela thought to herself as she dropped the ship for a quick landing in a clearing away from the beach, between a thatch of giant palm-analogues. _I swear I'll be nicer if he's okay. I'll stop swearing, god, if he's okay -_

She throttled down the engines and dashed for the door, Amy right on her heels.

"The camouflage netting, you nincompoops!" the Professor shouted.

Kif put a hand on his shoulder. "Hermes and I will get it, Professor."

Bender was already down the steps and plodding across the ground toward the jungle. Leela raced past him, heading for the trees. Amy followed her, scanner aloft and a laser rifle strapped across her back. "Leela, wait for me!"

Leela ignored her and dove into the thickness of the vegetation.

Amy swept the sensor around, looking at the display. Satisfying herself, she drew an arrow in the ground and moved some distance to her right, checking the reading again.

"Whatcha doing, meatbag?" Bender asked. He looked at Amy, and then looked at where Leela was ripping through the plants and trees.

"Triangulation," Amy said. "It's a trick Kif taught me."

Bender laughed. "Maybe you're smarter than we thought – and not even on your back!"

Amy scowled at the robot, drew another arrow and moved again.

"FRY!" Leela called from the jungle. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Bender, make yourself useful and stay with Leela," Amy said.

"What, are you crazy? She's gone nuts – you're more likely to find Fry."

Amy looked at the manbot with surprise. "Are you worried about him?"

"What? Sure – you worry about your fish, don't you? Plus, he still owes me fifty bucks from our chuggin contest yesterday – he forfeited, you know."

Amy shook her head. "Spleesh, Bender, you're a real friend."

"Don't forget it. Hey, maybe I'll have that engraved on the inside of my door…"

Amy ignored the robot's monologue, and drew another arrow. Eyeballing the intersection of the arrows, she started walking into the jungle.

After perhaps fifty meters of hiking, and climbing over trunks and fallen rocks, she came to a pile of bones.

"Oh, ghud no," she whispered. She bent down and began to push the bones with a stick. What she found caused her to leap back, hand to her mouth, and scream.

Leela was at her side in a moment, pistol out. "WHAT?! What is it?"

Amy pointed to the ground.

Leela stared for a moment, and then fell to her knees. She pressed her knuckles in her mouth.

Bender picked up the gory object. "Yep, a human hand. Right, it looks like." His eyestalks zoomed in on the fingertips. "Well, look likes Fry's fingerprints," he said. "From what I can tell," his voice caught, "with all the bite marks and everything!"

Leela, still on her knees, closed her eye and started making a strange snuffling sound. Amy knelt down next to Leela and wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Leela, I'm so sorry," Amy kept saying.

Leela's moaning increased in volume until it exploded from her, and she shrieked at the sky "OH GOD NO! NO GOD NO,DON'T TAKE HIM FROM ME!" Leela then buried her face in Amy's shoulder, sobbing.

After a few moments, Kif and Hermes came running, each carrying a laser pistol. "What's wrong?" Kif said, looking around nervously. Amy quietly told him what they had found.

Bender stuck his grisly trophy in his chest compartment. "At least I'll always have a memento of my favorite skintube." He wiped a tear of motor oil from one eyestalk.

The group was frozen for a moment, unsure of what to do but wait for their Captain to come to grips with her grief. They all turned as the Professor shuffled into the clearing, finally catching up with Kif and Hermes.

"What's all this now?" he asked.

"We found what's left of Fry," Bender said. "Just his hand."

"His hand, you say?" The Professor went to Amy. "Amy, please give me the scanner."

Puzzled, Amy moved her one arm from around the still-crying Leela, and handed the Professor the scanner.

"Oh my," the old scientist said after a moment of scanning. "Yes, this device tracks Fry's career chip, and its presently lodged inside Bender's casing – along with Hermes' watch."

"Ye thieving worker bee of grand larceny!" Hermes said sadly, heart clearly not in it since their gruesome find.

"Oh, this is odd, though," the Professor added.

"What is it?"

"This blinking light here clearly shows him alive," the Professor said.

"What? We're looking at his body parts," Kif said.

Leela wailed again. "Sorry, Leela," Kif said apologetically.

"Actually, Lt. Kroker, you're looking at Fry's left hand. According to the bio-sensor, which I tuned to Fry's genetic code (thank you for that blood sample, Bender), the rest of him's still alive somewhere on this planet. Without his chip, though, I can't really get a direction on him."

"How could ye possibly tell dat?" Hermes demanded.

"I'm the Professor, dammit!" the scientist said angrily.

Leela wiped her nose and looked up. "Please don't joke about this, Professor. I don't think I could take this…again." Her voice cracked pitifully.

"Oh, this is no joke," the Professor said. "However, I can't get a fix on him with just this," he added sadly. "We may have to wait until I can come up with something else."

Leela stood up, wiping her pants. She took Amy's hand and drew her up. Leela squeezed the Martian girl's hand once. "Thank you, Amy," she said softly.

Amy smiled and nodded.

Leela turned to the others, and put her hands on her hips. "Alright, we still need to top off our water tanks, and make sure we have enough food on hand." She took a deep breath. "It's hard to take, but we can't do anything about Fry until the Professor figures out a way to track his location. Let's get started on what we can deal with."

She turned to Amy. "Can you supervise Bender in setting up the water desalinating equipment? We'll need to run a hose down to the surf."

"Hermes? You and LaBarbara should get a manifest of our supplies together so we know what to look for. Kif, you're with me; we're going to need Dr. Zoidberg, too."

Amy looked at the starship captain in wonder. _The best therapy for Leela_, she thought, _is to give her problems to deal with. I wish I could take command of a situation like her_.

"What will we be doing, Captain?" Kif asked, taking Amy's hand.

Leela cracked a wild grin. "Refilling the fuel tanks. Bender, fetch me my harpoon, please!"


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

Fry squinted in the bright morning light, able to make out the shadowy shape of the merchantman they were pursuing on the horizon.

A stiff wind was at their back, keeping them after their prey. With their sleek hull and fuller sails, the pirate sloop was gaining handily on the fatter commercial ship.

"Have 'em in sight, Fry?"

"Aye aye, Levar," Fry called back.

"Get down, here, man, and get ready for shooting!"

Fry loosened his grip on the rope and began to carefully scramble down. Learning to scale the rigging of the sloop had been no easy task, especially with only one hand. He had slipped and almost fallen several times in the few days since he was fished out of the sea by the _Betty Sue_. Each time he had managed to catch himself, dangling on ropes dozens of feet over the back-breaking deck or heaving sea.

More than once his thoughts had flashed back to that time at Xmas when he was hanging off a ledge on a high skyscraper, barely saved in time – and who saved him.

_Leela_, he though to himself. _Where are you right now? Are you okay?_ Fry had surprised himself with how worried he was about the purple-haired love of his life. Fry thought maybe it was Leela's job to worry about everything else. _And my job to worry about her_.

When he was within a few feet, Fry jumped down to the deck, like he'd seen a dozen pirates do in the last few days. When his feet hit the deck, however, his breath was driven from his lungs.

"Ooof! Uh, reporting for duty, sir."

"'bout time," the pirate Levar said. "And don't be calling me sir, softie."

"Aye aye, si - uh, mister."

Levar groaned. "Get to the weapon master; he'll issue you a weapon."

Fry hustled into the group around the weapon master, who was handing out blades and guns from his "armory:" a heavy oaken chest.

"You ever handle one of these 'fore?" the weapon master asked Fry, dangling what looked like an old-style flintlock before him.

"Uh…yeah, sure," Fry said. "Boom!"

The weapon master shook his shaggy head, put the gunpowder weapon away, and pulled out a short, curved blade. "Here," he said. "Take this."

Fry took the weapon, and realized it was much lighter than it looked. He hefted it, shrugged, and stuck through his belt. _Time to figure that out later_, he thought.

"Take stations, you curs!" Levar bellowed. "The rabbit is close!"

Some crew gathered around two long tubes of oaken staves, reinforced with winding rope. Fry realized they were cannon made of wood, and he cringed slightly at the sight.

Two men stuffed in powder at the mouth of the cannon, and another loaded a round stone behind it. They ran from the mouth, and the rest of the crew wheeled the two cannon into position, pointing at the growing shape of the merchantman.

After a while, the civilian ship was fully visible ahead of them, its crew frantic on the deck and in the riggings.

"Fire," Pratt shouted, his face a steely mask. The cannons boomed, smoke and fire belching from their mouth and from cracks in the oak staves. Water spouted up next to the fleeing merchant ship.

Fry's stomach clenched a little. The whipping wind and booming cannon were exciting, but deep down inside he knew that there were lives at stake here.

"Give them some more encouragement, Mr. Levar," Pratt bellowed, and the grinning pirates adjusted the cannon and fired again.

This shot creased the hull of the merchant man, sending splinters up along with the gushing sea water.

"Yield!" Pratt bellowed across the water to the merchantman.

The crewman on the cargo ship, little more than two-inch high figures to Fry, milled some more and then started hauling something up the mast.

It was a white flag of surrender.

-------

Pratt's men forced the merchantman's sailors onto the _Betty Sue_ at sword and gun point. Fry and others were detailed to carry over all manner of supplies, including the two cannon, from the _Betty Sue_ to the merchant man, which Pratt whimsically re-named the _Matei Pavel_. A few trusted men, including Levar, were occupied in carrying over a long, tarp-draped object from the _Betty Sue_'s holds which was carefully and mysteriously taken below and secured in the _Matei Pavel_'s deepest bay.

It occurred to Fry that Pratt would not be making this switch of men and equipment unless he intended to abandon the _Betty Sue_, a thought which was confirmed later in the day.

Fry was still on the _Betty Sue_ gathering up random items. Levar and some toughs held the merchantman crew at gun-and-sword point, while they waited for Pratt's next order.

The pirate captain appeared on the _Matei Pavel_'s railing, clutching a rope for support and addressing the captured cargo ship's crew. "Avast, you scurvy dogs! I have a proposition for ye."

A murmur ran through the gathered sailors.

"I need crewmen, and some familiar with this ship. I can offer any man who joins me a fair share in the booty at the end, as a free pirate – not as a wage slave."

"And if we say no?" a sailor boldly shouted.

Pratt smiled. "Then ye may sail your merry way on me gift to you – the _Betty Sue_!"

"Foul mutiny!" yelled a man in captain's finery. Fry recognized him as the former captain of the merchantman. "The Masters'll punish any of you who join damned outlaws like them –"

Pratt pulled out a flintlock pistol, lit the fuse and fired it at the former captain of the _Matei Pavel_, knocking him to the deck. Blood poured from his chest, he kicked once, and then he didn't move.

"Choose me, choose slavery or choose hell," Pratt shouted, his face twisted in anger, "but I'll not hear yapping from the lapdogs of those monsters who call themselves 'Masters.'"

He regained his composure, bared his teeth in a smile again, and said, "So, who's with me?"

The crowd of merchant sailors was murmuring. One turned to Fry, "how is it, being a pirate?"

Fry shrugged. "Okay so far; I've only tried it for a few days." The man looked worried, and he had such an open and honest face that Fry suddenly wanted to reassure him. "I'd do it," Fry whispered to him.

The man looked doubtfully at Fry, then at Pratt and bit his lip. "Ah, to the devil with it." He raised his hand. "My name is Chan, and I'll join your crew."

"A brave man!" Pratt approved. "Fry, escort Pirate Chan to his ship!"

Fry gestured to Chan, and the two swung across the belaying lines between the ships.

"So, the captain's Pratt," Fry told his new crewmate, "and his second in command is Levar, over there."

Chan looked scared. "What do you think, Fry? Did I do the right thing?"

Fry clapped his hand on Chan's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Chan. You can't look back too much, or you'll never see what's coming." _Of course_, Fry thought to himself, _maybe I should look _forward_ a bit more…_

A great shout from behind them turned them around. Only two other merchant sailors had come over to the pirates' side, and Levar and the others were returning to the _Matei Pavel_. Across on the _Betty Sue_, the remaining merchant sailors were running up sails and making way before the pirates changed their minds.

"Mr. Levar, get us under sail," Pratt said, staring at the departing rear of the Betty Sue.

"Aye aye, Captain."

Almost absently, Pratt dug into his filthy jacket and pulled out his wicked-looking laser pistol. He pointed the incongruous weapon at the waterline of the _Betty Sue_ and fired three quick shots.

The energy bolts blew gaping holes in the hull of the sloop, as well as setting the timbers on fire. The crew yelled and cursed at Pratt as the sloop slowed to a stop, taking on water, and began to sink, pointed prow down. Some of the merchant crew jumped free and tried to swim toward the _Matei Pavel_. Pratt fried two and the rest turned away, shaking their fists and cursing Pratt's descendants. Others cried and sobbed in fear as the _Matei Pavel_ sailed away

Years ago, Fry would have said nothing, but something of Leela had rubbed off on him. "You're not just going to leave them to drown, are you? You're crazy –"

Chan caught Fry's arm as he started to move to Pratt. "Not now, my new friend. Quiet." Fry struggled with something in himself, then recognized Chan's point and fell silent.

Pratt turned back to his crew, expressionless. "Mr. Levar, I'll be in the captain's cabin, inspecting me new accommodations."

"Aye aye, Captain."

-------

"Why the whole charade? Why switch ships?" Fry asked angrily.

"Be quiet, Fry," Chan said again. The two were splicing ropes on night shift, alone on the forward deck, but Chan was terribly jumpy. Watching his former crew mates get drowned or incinerated hadn't helped his nerves. "I told you, the treasure in the holds is way too heavy for a light sloop like the _Betty Sue_ to make off with."

"And the offer?"

"Just to see who might be tempted. Pirates _do_ have attrition."

Fry shook his head. "I just can't imagine it. Killing all those people – and slowly, too…"

"Enough, Fry." Chan shook his head. "I just want to get home, and see my mother again. Forget this pirate life. Why did I agree?" he moaned.

_If you didn't agree, you'd be fish food right now_, Fry thought. He didn't think Chan would appreciate the comment, though. _Leela would be proud of how I can not say things sometimes_. Thinking of his captain – his _real_ captain – made his chest hurt. He suppressed a sniffle.

"What are you thinkin' about?" Chan asked him after a bit. "Got a girl in port?"

Fry sighed, the memory of Leela's scent lingering in his mind. "Yeah, I do. Not sure what port, though."

"You're kinda strange, Fry."

Fry smiled. "You have no idea." Another thought struck him, and he tossed down his rope. "Come on, I want to see this treasure."

He stood and headed toward the nearest hatch to below-decks, Chan following reluctantly. After ducking through a few crudely hewn hatches and down another set of ladders, they arrived at a hold filled with crates.

Chan looked around. "I don't understand – when Captain Loren was here there were armed guards on this hold."

"I guess Pratt trusts us pirates more," Fry said as he pried open a lid and looked inside. Expecting the glitter of gold and jewels, he was surprised to see the dull gleam of iron ingots. "What the heck is this?"

"The treasure," Chan said. "A fortune's worth of smelting metal, direct from the mines of the Masters."

"But it's just iron!"

"Oh, there's steel and lead in there too – also copper, which the Masters particularly prize. Not sure why – it's always seemed kinda soft to me."

"Just…scrap metal?" Fry was disappointed.

"Is there anything more valuable?" Chan asked, surprised.

Fry was starting to get a headache. _No, it's one of those – what do you call it – ideas!_ "There's not a lot of metal on this planet, is there?" Fry said.

"I don't know what you mean by planet," Chan said, "but metal's pretty rare. Almost all metal comes from the Masters' mines." He eyed Fry. "You must come from an island pretty far away."

"Who are these Masters everyone keeps mentioning?" Fry said.

Chan goggled at Fry. "You don't have _Masters_ where you come from?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, although that's not unusual for me."

Chan hesitated for a moment and then opened his mouth to speak. Before he could reply, Pratt's voice, scratchy with whisky, came out of the darkened depths of the hold.

"I'll tell you about the Masters," the pirate captain said, as he stepped out of the gloom, eyes ruddy and a bottle in his hand. "I'll tell you everything you need to know."

-------

Night had fallen when the crew of the Planet Express regrouped under the camouflage tent Kif and Hermes had erected over the ship. Bender had started a small fire – either intentionally or by accident, no one was sure – and the crew clustered around it, eating food from self-heating packages and saying very little.

Amy licked barbeque sauce from her fingers and smiled at Kif, who was nibbling a cracker. Turning her gaze to Leela, her smile faltered. The cyclops was staring off at the wine-dark sea, chewing on some bit of food while her mind was light-years away.

Amy looked around. No one else even seemed to be looking at Leela. Sighing, Amy stood, wiped the last bit of sauce on her sweatpants and walked over to Leela. Sitting down on the sand next to her, Amy said, "Hey there."

Leela looked at her, and her eye was a thousand miles away. "Oh, hey, Amy."

Amy put her arms around her knees. "How are you doing?"

Leela gave her a half-smile, and said, "Poorly, I think. My thoughts keep…drifting."

"You've kept us organized and moving," Amy volunteered.

"Work," Leela said bitterly. "I've always buried myself in work, trying to forget my problems." Her voice was low. "Discipline. Achievement. Getting ahead. Meanwhile, I was ignoring – " She shook her head. "What was right in front of me."

Amy put her hand on Leela's shoulder. "We all have blind spots, Leela. _Spleesh_, for years I was bouncing from man to man, looking for a good time. _Ghud_, did I have some good times! Men fawning all over me, taking me out, buying me gifts – "

Leela scowled.

Amy blushed and coughed. "Well, the point is that Kif was there and I didn't even recognize how important he was to me at first. But once I did…wow!"

"I'm just so scared, Amy," Leela said finally. "Scared for him and…scared for me. I don't like that feeling. My whole life I've been beating my fears. Why is this so hard?"

"Because you care so much? You and Fry have been dancing around this for a long time, Leela. It's okay to be afraid." Amy looked at Kif, who was talking to Zoidberg by the fire. "Just don't give in to the fear – like I did." She shook her head sadly.

"Kif's forgiven you, Amy. You can forgive yourself," Leela said.

"Thanks. Besides, Zap's one thing we have in common now," Amy said, a half-smile on her face.

Leela snickered. "Who would think that oaf would be good for anything?" Her expression changed. "God, I miss Fry's goofy laugh, and his goofy smile and the way he could make me feel good just by being there."

"We'll find him, Leela. Don't worry."

The two women sat silently for a time together, listening to the crackle of the fire and the murmur of the crew. Leela eventually sighed. "Well, better get back to it," she said. The two women stood, and mutant turned to the Martian. "Thank you again, Amy, for talking to me."

"We girls have to stick together," Amy said.

Leela nodded, and turned to the group. "Alright, listen up!" she said, raising her voice. The crew quieted and turned towards Leela. "Let's go through and see what we've got. Hermes?"

The bureaucrat stood and adjusted his glasses. He pulled out his clipboard, and said, "Reviewing the stores, I found dat we have packaged food supplies for three months, parts to completely refit the ship if needed, a mini-laboratorium for de Professor, and I tallied many bananas."

Hermes shook his head. "Sadly, I found that we failed to file our required 'Flight from Justice' form when we busted you ladies out of jail, so I wanted to file a 'Notice of Late Filing' notice…" he let out a sob "…but I didn't bring any!" He started crying.

"There, there, husband," LaBarbara comforted Hermes in her arms.

"Oh…kay," Leela said. "Amy?"

"Bender and I set up the water desalination equipment, and we've filled up the ship's main and auxiliary tanks with distilled water. I only had to use Bender's patriotism override once!"

"Lousy stinking humans…" Bender muttered.

Leela suppressed a laugh. "Kif, Dr. Zoibberg and I managed to extract enough whale oil to completely refuel the ship, as well as stash some in the emergency reserve tank the Professor installed in the hold. Best of all, with Dr. Zoidberg's help underwater, we didn't have to kill any of the whales. He made sure they made it back to the sea after we siphoned off some excess blubber."

Dr. Zoidberg looked up from where he was licking his claws. "Vat? Oh, yes. Delectable – I mean delightful - creatures."

Leela blinked at him once, and then coughed. "Well, Professor, it seems we're in position to get out of here once we do some repairs. Oh, and – " her voice changed pitch " - as soon as you find a way to get Fry back!"

The ancient scientist stood slowly from his unfolded beach chair. "Sadly, I'm still working on that. But more importantly, we can't just leave this planet. We have to do something about the people on here."

"Why is it our problem, Professor?" Amy axed.

The old man looked down, and frowned. "What I'm about to tell you is the deepest secret of the Academy of Inventors. It is my unhappy fate to have to reveal this to you. In some small, but real, way, these people's fates are my fault."


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

"They call themselves the Masters," Pratt said, bloodshot eyes narrowed with hate, "but I call them devils. Part machine, part man, they lord it over us with their science and their control of the metals."

He walked around Fry and Chan, who were rooted to the spot. Pratt continued, "Every baron of a city, every duke of an island bows down to them. They control the markets, the metals, the lords in their fancy clothes and the priests in their temples. Only we – the pirate brethren – do not bow down to them." He thrust the bottle at Fry.

Fry looked at it, took it, and gingerly took a swig. He swallowed a mouthful, gagging at the powerful taste. "Nice," Fry said. He handed the bottle back.

Pratt smiled approvingly, and said, "But that's not why I hate 'em, Fry. Guess why?" He looked at Fry expectantly.

"Um…why?" Fry's throat was dry.

Pratt guffawed long and hard, and then started to cry. "They take children, Fry. Children to do their diabolical experiments on; children who don't survive."

Pratt wiped his tears with his dirty sleeve. "They took my children. It killed my wife. She cried herself to death."

Fry had a mental image of Leela, children taken from her, sobbing in her bed and him unable to help. He shivered.

Pratt's voice hardened. "_I_ wasn't giving up. I went after them. I had a group of men from my town with me – my first pirate crew."

"We tracked the bastards and their prisoners to Old Laffer island, where they kept some prisoner pens." Pratt took another long swig of from the bottle.

"Broke into the pens, got out all the prisoners and burned the damned bastards' fortress to the ground. They were tough, I'll grant you – half my men didn't make it back."

Fry hesitated, then asked, "Your children?"

Pratt looked at the red-head. "Dead before we got there." He finished off the bottle of whiskey in one long gulp without offering Fry any more. "I've been sailing the seas ever since then, fighting these devils and their lackeys at every chance, and I won't rest until every single one of them is dead, and mankind is free."

Pratt looked at Chan. "I can see your pain, too, man. What's your story?"

Chan wrung his hands. "My…my big sister. The Masters took her when she was twelve. My father tried to fight…they killed him right in the street like a dog." He looked up at Pratt. "I remember it like it was yesterday." Chan took a deep breath. "The hardest part of my mother was…seeing Mei again."

Pratt grimaced. "Your sister is one of the ones who survived, huh?"

"Guess that made your mom…happy?" Fry axed, although he was pretty sure it hadn't.

Chan covered his eyes with his hands. "She saw her at a market fair in the big harbor town of our island. She was fifteen then, and had the basic metal…things…they have. She didn't even look at Mother, I heard. I ran off to sea after I saw my mother come back from that trip." Chan started weeping quietly.

Fry put his hand on Chan's shoulder. _Children!_ He was angry at these Masters, angry as he'd been at the Infosphere. He looked up at Pratt. "So now you pillage and kill, Captain Smiling Pratt?"

Pratt shook his head. "Don't approve of me methods, eh, Fry? I told ye you weren't like us." He leaned in close enough for Fry to smell the whiskey on his breath. "I understand, ye know. You remind me of myself, long long ago." Pratt grinned. "But not a lot of killing left, Fry – not of _real_ people anyway."

Pratt stepped back, and gave an incongruous laugh. "The end's coming for those devils, for sure, and this here ship's carrying it."

"What do you mean?" Fry asked.

Pratt took a long look at Chan, then at Fry, and said, "Let me know tomorrow if you're with me, Fry. If you are, I'll see you on the main deck at six bells." The pirate captain strode past the pair and climbed up a ladder to a hatch.

Fry watched him go, and was startled to see Levar emerge from the darkness. The second-in-command scowled at Fry, and said, "What the Captain didn't tell you, softie, is that I was one of the children he rescued on that first raid. I've been following him ever since."

Suddenly Levar had a dagger out and the point pricked Fry's neck. "The Captain has high hopes for you, but I don't see why, and I don't trust ye myself. I won't hesitate to slice you open and toss you to the fish if I think you're going to betray the Captain, softie."

"I'll keep that in mind," Fry stuttered.

Levar studied both of them, then vanished back into the gloom.

"I'm _really_ starting to have regrets," Chan said.

-------

"The cyborgs were defeated by the human resistance," the Professor said, firelight glinting off of his thick spectacles, "but not destroyed. There were many of them left, and they had terrible weapons remaining."

"So what happened? And how did they get here?" Amy axed.

"Hubris," the Professor said. "Hubris and fear. The forerunners of the Academy of Inventors – the smartest, most brilliant scientists left in the world – presumed to speak for humanity and cut a secret deal with the cyborgs. If they would leave without using their doomsday weapons, we would give them a way out."

"The wormhole!" Leela said.

"Exactly. It was built by those human scientists, with the cyborgs' help. That's why it doesn't show up on the DOOP charts; it's been a closely-guarded secret of the Academy for almost a millennia. Good lord, DOOP didn't even exist back then."

"And all these people? They're humans from Earth?"

"Oh my, yes; descendants of the people the cyborgs took with them," the professor said.

"You let them take prisoners with them?!" Leela gasped.

"_I _didn't do anything, young lady. And they weren't prisoners – they were breeding stock."

"That's horrible!" Leela said.

"So for a thousand years the cyborgs have been on this side of the wormhole, waiting for some kind of pursuit – and nobody on our side even knew it was there?" Amy was somewhat amazed.

"The oldest members of the Academy have been custodians of the secret for ten centuries," the Professor said. "I doubt even Wernstrom (grrr!) knew of the matter."

The Professor straightened up and his voice got stronger. "As the oldest member of the Academy of Inventors, and the only one here, this falls to me. It is my responsibility to protect these people from the gamma ray burst." He smiled at them. "Good news, everyone! You're going to help me on this mission of mercy!"

The traditional groans greeted the professor.

Kif was the first to speak. "How to we protect a whole biosphere from an astronomical event?"

"A diamondium shield, large enough to shadow the planet, and charged with a strong enough forcefield, would stop the majority of the dangerous gamma rays. We just have to build it ourselves."

Leela was stunned. "Your – your talking about something tens of thousands of kilometers across! We couldn't possibly build something like that ourselves!" Her mind's eye was visualizing a giant crystal lens the diameter of a planet, with powerplants the size of cities to drive its forcefield. Leela shuddered in awe.

"Of course not, you nincompoop," the Professor said crossly. "Who said anything about building it ourselves? We have to get help."

"Help!" Hermes exclaimed. "The locals are living in wooden huts with sailing ships."

"But the Cyberians aren't," Kif observed. "That's who you mean, isn't it, Professor? Getting the Cyberians to help us."

"Correct, Lt. Kroker. After all, the Cyberians appear to live on this world too, or at least have an interest in it."

"Those machine-desecrating, human-parts-using maniacs?" Bender said incredulously. "You want to ask them for help? Last time we saw them, the only help they were interesting is givin' us was a laser enema." He bit off the end of cigar and lit it with his finger. "Well, good luck with that, meatbags – I wish you luck."

Leela ignored the robot; while she couldn't argue with his point, they did not have much of a choice. "I guess we have to try. How do you suggest we approach them, Professor?"

"Carefully," Amy interjected.

"My young intern is correct, loyal employees. We must find the stronghold of the cyborgs, and fly there emitting the Academy's identifier beacon. Hopefully they will remember the parley signal and allow us to communicate before blasting us."

Leela rubbed her chin. "So…how do we find their stronghold?"

"I suggest we make contact with some of the locals. They may be able to put us in contact with the cyborgs. There's a seaside town not too far down the coast of this island – we can start there."

Leela nodded. "Seems as reasonable as anything else in this crazy place. Something we can start on in the morning." She stretched, trying to wring the tension from her shoulders. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm going to turn in."

She started toward the ship's ladder, and then stopped for a moment. "Amy," she said quietly, "do you still have the tracker the Professor built?"

Amy frowned, and reached into her pocket. She pulled out the device, with its still-blinking green light and directional display that pointed straight at Bender. Amy walked over to Leela and handed it to her, a question in her eyes.

"Thanks," Leela said, looking at the green light with a strange expression on her face. "I think I'll keep this under my pillow."

The starship captain went up the steps to her cabin.

-------

Fry awoke with a start at six bells. Mornings had never been his thing, but months of working a steady job for Leo Wong had started to get him in the practice of early rising.

"Not this early," he grumbled to himself as he slid out of his hammock. _Funny_, he thought. _My hammock here's just like mine on the ship. With all the manual labor I've been doing, you'd think I would be sleeping better. But I miss her so much –_

Suddenly, Fry remembered his dream. _Leela, crying without end on her bed. Our children – our children! – red-haired and one-eyed, being dragged away by shadowy horrors. My impotent fury –_ he shivered. His dream had convinced him.

Fry headed topside, avoiding the chow line. His stomach was twisted up, and he couldn't bear the thought of food right now.

On the stern deck, by himself, Pratt waited quietly. "You came, Fry," was all he said.

Fry stopped a few feet from the man. "I did. I wanted to hear more."

"Do you want to stop the metal devils?"

"Just because they're metal doesn't make them devils, Pratt." Fry shook his head. "But if they're hurting people – then yes, I want to stop them. But I'm not willing to see other people die needlessly, Pratt."

Pratt grinned. "There's no need for that with me plan, sonny. No one will be hurt – except _them_."

"What _is_ your plan?"

"All in good time; first I think I should teach you a few things." Pratt opened a case lying on the deck with a foot, and pushed out a sword. "Pick it up," he told Fry.

Fry, expecting a trick, slowly bent down and picked up the sword. Like the one he had the day of the raid, it was lighter than he expected. Looking closely at it, he realized it was made, not of metal, but of some thin slice of ceramic. "Cool!" he said.

"On your guard, Mr. Fry," Pratt said dryly.

Fry tried to remember the sword-fighting techniques his worm-enhanced body had used, and took up a stance. Pratt came at him in a rush and the two clashed blades for a moment.

Then Pratt was behind him somehow, and his sword point was pressing against Fry's kidney. "Got you, Fry."

Pratt came around and grinned at the red-headed man. "Now let me show you how I did it."


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6

Leela shaded her eye with her hand as she watched Amy, Scruffy and Hermes paddle their little boat away, taking the Professor with them. The Planet Express crew had prepared for almost two weeks for the little expedition to the nearest town, and Leela wished she could go.

She sighed, turning away from the horizon. It made sense that only the normal humans go, but she still didn't like it.

_Plus, it leaves me here with Bender_, she thought tiredly. The robot was trying to get Kif to play poker, but the Amphibiosan had little taste for card games.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, Kif – he's already lifted your wallet," Leela said snidely as she opened a mug of self-heating coffee.

The alien grabbed at his pocket, and then turned and started berating Bender. "There are pictures of my beautiful Amy in there, you malfunctioning thief!"

Bender tossed the emptied wallet back at the DOOP officer, waving a manipulator. "Yeah, yeah – I just took the cash; you can have your lousy pictures back."

Kif opened the wallet and looked at the animated pictures of Amy lovingly. "You're welcome to the cash; these pictures of Amy are worth every last cent I have. Besides, what do you plan to do with Earthican money millions of light-years from New New York?"

Bender thought for a moment, and then his metal shoulders slumped. "Aww, thanks for taking the fun out of it."

"Alright, you two," Leela said, taking a sip of her coffee. "If you're done being stupid, let's finish repairing the ship." As she said that, a shiver of déjà vu ran up her spine. How many times had she said that before to Fry and Bender? _Oh Fry, I pray that you're okay_. _Do you miss me as badly as I miss you?_

Before she broke down in tears again, Leela seized control of herself and said, "Let's get cracking."

Kif saluted her and hurried into the makeshift machine shop set up in the hold. Bender saluted, too, although somewhat more slovenly, and then lit a cigar.

_How many of those things did he bring with him?_ Leela wondered, and then shook her head. _It doesn't matter, I guess_. "Bender, play time's over. Get into the shop with Kif and bend whatever it is he needs bent – I don't want to have to use the patriotism override."

Bender made a raspberry noise, but he headed into the ship, muttering under his breath about "killing humans" along the way. Leela could also hear LaBarbara humming from the makeshift kitchen set up near the fire pit, where the woman was cooking some Jamaican dish. Leela shook her head; LaBarbara was almost as bad a cook as Bender, but she seemed eager.

None of them, however, had noticed the small, three-eyed black creature which snuck from his hiding place inside the Planet Express ship and capered off into the jungle, red cape trailing comically behind him.

-------

Amy, Hermes, Scruffy and the Professor beached their little boat on a rocky shore near town, tying a line to a convenient tree. Amy helped the Professor out of the boat, and then turned to consider the rest of her little crew.

"You there," she said to the janitor, "stay with the boat."

As the little group walked away, the Professor whispered to her "I don't trust the new guy anyway."

"Why do you think I left him behind?" Amy whispered back. The three trudged along a game trail, helping the Professor along the way, until they reached the outskirts of the open-air market.

"Now remember, everyone, we just want information about the cyborgs. And for god's sake, don't just blurt it out, either!" The Professor admonished them.

The three first approached a woman selling knitted sweaters from a grimy stand made of wooden boards and piled rocks. "Excuse me, my good lady," the Professor said, "but do you know where we could find the nearest cyborg representatives?"

Amy covered her face with her hands, and Hermes exclaimed "Professor!"

"What?" the scientist said crossly.

Amy pushed forward. "Ma'am, we just arrived here on your island and were wondering where we might stay?" Amy hoped the more prosaic question might distract the vendor from the Professor's blunt questioning.

"There's an inn by the Master's fortress on the hill there," the woman said, raising her eyebrows at the curious group. She pointed to a rise on the slope of a dormant volcano, where a stone fortress squatted under a dark cloud.

"A little stereotypical," Hermes muttered. The professor just shook his head and said, "So old-school mad scientist."

Amy muttered a "Spleesh," and then tried turning up the cuteness on the woman. "So, your…Masters…do they have as much metal in them as…our…Masters do?"

The woman looked at them suspiciously. "Are you spies for the Masters? I'm a loyal subject; I don't have any truck with the pirates! Now get on with you, and let me go back to honest selling!"

The three backed away from the stall and headed further into the chaotic market, dodging porters carrying barrels and fishwives with baskets of various seafoods.

"Horseflesh from Marrakesh!" Hermes said, "This market is busy."

"You think this is busy," a well-dressed man told them, "you should see the Great Market at the feet of the Masters' Great Castle on Prime Island.

"Really," Amy said, "tell me more!" She winked at the man, and lowered the zipper of her sweatsuit a bit.

The man's face brightened. "Why, of course! It's one of the great scenes in the world." His eyes seemed locked on Amy's chest.

"Wow," she purred, putting her hand on his arm. "How do we get there?"

Hermes rolled his eyes, whispered something to the professor about a green snake and sugar cane, and wandered off.

Amy continued her gentle questioning of the well-dressed man, who was transfixed by her charm. He gesticulated wildly as he pointed to the east, described the vast distance of the trip (which he had taken many times), the risks from storms and pirates (which he had bravely faced), and the stone-faced power of the Masters (before which he had trembled appropriately).

Amy nodded, and _oohed_ and _aahed_ breathily as she mentally took notes on his descriptions. After a while, with some gentle prodding, he had given her fairly complete directional guides on how to find this Prime Island.

"Well," Amy said seductively, "that _is_ fascinating. Perhaps you can tell me more…at your inn. Are you staying nearby? Perhaps I can join you after I get my grandfather to his place." She hit him with her full-wattage smile.

The man babbled the address of his inn. Amy blew him a kiss, took the Professor by the arm and led him away.

"Artfully done, Ms. Wong," the Professor said. "I doubt that temptress Mom could have fared any better."

"_Glugg_!" Amy shuddered at being compared to the ancient, decrepit industrialist. Changing the subject, she said "I think with that information Leela and I can plot a course for the central headquarters of the cyborgs." Amy looked around. "Now where did Hermes get to?"

"He said he was going to try his hand at some trading."

"Well, where are we going to find him?"

"Ah! There's the young whipper-snapper!" The Professor raised one shaky hand and pointed. Hermes was coming towards them with a troubled look on his face.

When he reached the Professor and Amy, he held out his hand and opened his fingers. "Take a look at this," he said. "I just traded some…dried plants…I had to a local vendor for _this_."

The two looked at the coin in Hermes' palm and gasped.

-------

Leela lifted up her welding goggle and wiped the sweat from her brow with one arm, while the other put down the plasma torch. She was perched atop the ship, installing a replacement chair in the now-repaired gun turret. It had taken her nearly the entire day to peel away the wreckage of the old turret and put in replacement gimbals, pressure seals and the new laser gun. Now she was putting in a new seat for the gunner to occupy.

Leela fingered a piece of scrap metal she had saved from the damaged section. It was part of the facing of the gun controls, and it had been etched – obviously over several years, because the alloy was tough – with simple symbols: P.F. + T.L. _That's my Fry – he never gives up_. She smiled, thinking of Fry, and looked at the new chair she put in. _That's a lot more comfy than the old one_, she thought. _I think Fry will like the new seat_. She smiled at herself. _Taking care of Fry has become second nature to me over the years. It does make me feel – what's the phrase Fry uses? – warm and fuzzy…_

"They're back!" Kif yelled from the beach.

Leela looked up, across the water, and saw the boat carrying Amy and the rest returning on the waves. She rose from her crouch and waved at the returning people. Someone – she thought it was Amy – waved back.

They rowed for a while, and Leela realized they were much further away than she originally thought. _Damn depth perception_, she thought. Soon enough, however, the little boat hit the beach, Amy and Hermes jumping out to drag it further out of the water.

Kif helped the Professor out of the boat, and Scruffy opened the stopcock to start deflating the boat. Amy came up to Leela and said, "Good news and better news, Captain Turanga!"

Leela smiled at the younger woman's brashness. Amy seemed pleased that her mission had met with success. "What's the word, Ms. Wong?"

The Martian woman tapped her forehead and said, "I think we've got the location of the cyborgs' main base."

Leela nodded. "Good work, Amy. Let's see if – "

"There's more news!" Hermes exclaimed, pulling away from the embrace LaBarbara had locked him in. "Look what I got!" He thrust out his hand.

Leela squinted at the bent, worn medallion in Hermes' palm. It was a giant coin, and it bore a vaguely familiar bust on the face, with the words 'In Earth We Trust' on the top, and '3002' curved along the bottom. Hermes flipped it over.

The medallion or coin had inscribed on it a catafalque, with the notation 'In Tribute to Earth President McNeill, Who Gave His Life for His Planet,' and along the bottom of the coin 'No Value - Not For Legal Tender.'

"Your God!" Bender said. "It's from Earth – I remember when they minted those things and were handing them out at the Freedom Day parade."

"They weren't handing dem out, you mechanical menace," Hermes growled. "You just stole dem from de vendors."

"How did it get here?" Leela wondered. "Did it come through the wormhole with someone else?"

"I don't think so," Hermes said. "The guy I got it from had a story about it being sold to him by the last of a long line of traders who traveled among the stars. I think someone has another way to reach the Earth!"

The professor nodded. "I scanned the coin on the way back, and I didn't pick up any stray synchrotron radiation, which would be on any object which came through the wormhole."

"Didn't…we all come through the wormhole? Wouldn't all of us contaminate it?" Kif asked.

"Oh, bah!" the Professor said. "I programmed it to exclude the ship and those of us here (thank you, Bender, for getting everyone's DNA samples). So I can say with absolute certainty that this coin didn't come through the wormhole." The Professor crossed his arms, daring anyone to challenge him.

"Oh great Jah! Dis means there's another way back!" LaBarbara clutched at her husband's shoulder.

Leela clapped Hermes on the back. "Good work, man."

The bureaucrat smiled in a strained way. "We still don know how to contact dese traders, or who de are."

"Perhaps the cyborgs can tell us," the Professor said. "Let's not forget we need to contact them."

"Contact them why, again?" Bender asked sardonically.

"Contact who?" the Professor asked, a confused expression on his face.

Leela sighed. "Not this again." She raised her voice. "Okay, everyone. The ship is just about ready to fly. Kif and Bender, please finish the new laser turret. Amy, I'll help you plot a course to Cyborg Central. Everyone else, get ready to leave as soon as the turret is ready. Let's save this planet, find Fry and get our asses home!"

The Planet Express crew cheered her – except for the Professor, who was looking around. "Who are you people?" he asked crossly. "Where's my cocoa?"

-------

"I regret to inform command that the Mighty One is still missing. I have high hopes, however, that the Other will be able to locate him."

"Do you require assistance at this time, Lord Nibbler?"

"Please send a 'Kitten'-class ship for my use. I do not believe I can hide further aboard the Planet Express ship, and if they do find the Mighty One, they may depart quickly."

"We will comply, Lord Nibbler. Is there any chance the Other will leave the Mighty One behind on this doomed world?"

Nibbler purred slightly. "I do not think there is force in this Universe, or any other, that could make the Other leave the Mighty One behind."

-------

"Again, Fry!" Pratt shouted. Fry swung his cutlass another time at the hanging sack of hay and twine, panting from exertion. His arm felt like lead.

From the corner of his eye, Fry caught movement. He wheeled about, bringing up his sword, and deflected the blow that Pratt aimed at him.

The pirate lord stepped back, a broad smile on his face. "Very good, my boy."

Fry put his arms down, curved sword at his side. He wiped the sweat from his eyes, and panted. The slanted rays of the setting sun made his sweaty skin glisten.

"Tired?" the pirate asked him.

"Exhausted," Fry admitted. He flexed his sore muscles. "I feel like I've been mauled by Siddhartha."

"You were practicing for two hours, according to my count," the captain said, gesturing to a flowing sandglass. "That's your longest time yet," he said with some satisfaction. "You're turning into quite the swordsman."

Fry nodded. He could feel his strength and endurance growing, and the praise Pratt gave him stoked his pride even more. _I wish Leela could see me right now!_ He shook his head. _No, Leela *will* see me again_. Putting down his sword, he picked up a water skin and guzzled out of it.

Pratt picked up the sword and put it in the case, and cut down the target bag. "Get up to the crow's nest, Fry – take a look out before the sun sets."

"Aye aye, Captain." Fry turned to go.

"When I see you next," Pratt said off-handedly, "I think I will regale ye with the tale of where we're going – and what we're doing when we get there."

Fry froze in place, but didn't turn around. He nodded, his back still to Pratt, and kept going to the mainmast. Reaching the base, he started climbing up the rope ladder, still deep in thought. _Should I help Pratt? *Can* I help Pratt, knowing what he's done?_ An image of Leela, sobbing on her bed, flashed back to him. _Can I *not* help Pratt?_

Fry shook his head. _Thinking's not your strong suite, boy_, he thought to himself in Yancy Senior's voice. Then another thought formed in his head.

_Why isn't it? _

_I always let others think for me. Bender, the Professor, even Leela sometimes. Maybe it's time I thought for myself_. Fry smiled. _Even so, I still wish Leela was here – if only to ask her advice. And kiss her_.

The sun had set, and the sky was darkening into the deep black purple of this pre-artificial-light world. Thick cloud banks were forming in the distance, and pre-cursor clouds scudded before the wind over the _Matei Pavel_. Fry studied the clouds for a minute and then noticed, high in the sky, a trio of Cyberian raiders flying in a triangle formation. They were flying in the same direction as the sailing ship; Fry considered raising an alarm, but they didn't seem to notice the _Matei Pavel_ as they sliced through the sky.

Fry blinked. He suddenly noticed a slightly larger ship flying in the center of – being escorted by? –the Cyberian formation. _Is that electric mucus?_ He blinked again, but the ships had vanished behind a cloud bank. _Was that –_

Fry shrugged off his sudden anxiety. _If it was, they seem to be headed the same place as me_, he told himself.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 7

Leela kept her hands on the Planet Express ship's controls, and struggled with her emotions. When the first Cyberian raider had appeared, all the feelings she experienced when learning that Fry had been lost flared back up. Sorrow, fear, loss – and anger. _If I'm honest with myself, guilt as well_, she had thought.

She had hovered one hand over the launch button for the torpedo as the Professor and Amy had transmitted the parley code over all the communications channels the ship could transmit on. While they sent, the first raider had circled them, holding its fire. It was joined by another, and then a third. Finally, a harsh, somewhat mechanical voice came over the communications channel.

"Identify yourselves!" the gender-less voice had commanded.

The crew looked at each other, and Leela had broken the silence. "I am Captain Turanga Leela, of the Planet Express Delivery Company. We come to discuss saving your world from the oncoming gamma ray burst. We seek an audience at the Great Castle of…the Masters." Her voice hung a bit on the last word.

The voice had paused for a moment. "Illogical. What assistance can you provide?"

Hermes had smoothly broken in. "Perhaps none. But if your superiors discover that you did not allow us to transmit our offer to them, will you be rewarded or punished?"

The silence had stretched interminably, and then the voice had commanded, slightly less certain, "Fly to these coordinates, and remain in the center of the formation."

Leela looked at Hermes wonderingly, and the man had smiled. "Bureaucracies are the same the world over – kick the problem upstairs."

Now they flew across the sea, headed toward the Prime Island of the cyborgs, escorted by a trio of raiders.

And Leela felt nothing but rage at those she blamed for Fry's disappearance. At least she tried to feel nothing but rage; it helped to keep the other, darker emotions at bay. _I should have been more careful. I should have gone back for him, and damn the others. I should have been the one to go in the cargo bay. I should have been the one lost_.

"Leela?" Amy said quietly.

"What?" Leela barked. She bit back more. _Amy doesn't deserve that_, she thought.

"You're hurting yourself," Amy observed, looking at the cyclops' hands. Leela glanced down, and saw that her fingers were curled around the controls so tightly that her nails were drawing blood from her palms. She cursed, and wiped blood on her pants.

"Thanks, Amy," Leela said. From the corner of her eye, she could see Kif take Amy's hand. _I'm glad Kif came back to her_, she thought. _They're such a comfort to each other. Like how Fry is a comfort to me – No. Don't think about him right now. Don't think about his cute red moptop or the bump in his nose…_

_Don't think about how you should have rescued him._ Leela shook her head again. _Amy's right. I'm just hurting myself_.

Everyone was so focused on the raiders surrounding them as they flew that no one noticed passing high over the little sailing ship, nor the synchrotron radiation detector the Professor had left carelessly lying on a bench blinking vigorously as it detected a life-form passing beneath them which had traversed the wormhole.

-------

The evening was uneventful, until a voice in the night called out "lights on the starboard!"

"Quarters, men!" the office of the watch bellowed. There was chaos for minutes as pirates dashed about. Fry put down his wooden bowl of slop and ran over to where the weapons master was lugging out his "armory."

Levar and Pratt were conferring nearby, and Fry noticed Pratt was wearing a long, fancy coat from the previous captain's closet. It covered his scruffy pirate finery, and made him look almost respectable.

Pratt spotted Fry glancing at them, and waved him over. Worried, Fry scuttled over to the two, sticking the sword the weapon master had issued him in his belt. "What up, Captain?" he asked.

Pratt nodded toward a bright search light approaching across the water, beams focused on the _Matei Pavel_. "Looks like our beloved Masters are paying us a visit. Of course, they'll find nothing but law abiding, obedient servants here." He smiled toothily.

Fry looked around at the pirates, armed with ceramic cutlasses and flintlock pistols. "Um, is this a good idea, Captain?" he asked reluctantly.

Levar answered. "It's just a random customs patrol, softie. One or two Masters with a bunch of human dogs. Nothing we can't handle."

Pratt said, "Don't underestimate them, Levar. Some of us will die today." His expression remained flat, but his tone changed. "_All_ of _them_ will die, though," he snarled. He turned to his second. "Levar, get to the gadget; on my word, use it."

Levar nodded and ran off. Pratt told Fry, "Get your friend Chan and get back here – I want you to see this."

"Uh, I can skip it, Captain – "

Pratt gave him a look Fry recognized well, so he ran below decks and grabbed Chan, who was grumbling on bilge duty. Chan had mixed feelings about accompanying Fry – he was happy to get above decks, but not happy about being in the line of fire.

"Don't worry," Fry assured him. "If they start shooting, I bet you the whole ship'll go up." He threw up his hands in an imitation of an explosion.

"Thanks for the reassurance," Chan said doubtfully.

When the two friends returned to Pratt's side, the patrol hovercraft was pulling alongside the ship. It floated up, ignoring the rocking seas, until it was level with the _Matei Pavel_'s deck and then a door slid open.

A human came out first, laser rifle at the ready and night-sight goggles on. Another exited with a sensor wand out, and his rifle slung on his back. Finally, with a faint subsonic whirring sound, out stepped a Master.

He – and Fry was pretty sure it was a he – was tall, but not ridiculously so. He was not overly muscled, but he moved with an easy power which hinted at great strength. His bald head glittered with the facets of electronics and implants, and his one-piece jumpsuit was likewise studded with all manner of devices. One arm ended in a perfectly normal human hand; the other had a clutch of squirming mechanical tentacles emerging from the wrist. He opened his mouth, and spoke in a voice like Bender's after the robot's personality had been wiped. "Assemble the ship's complement before me," he commanded.

"Of course, good Master," Pratt said, almost simpering as he played the part of an obedient ship's captain. He turned slightly, and said loudly, "Levar, please _give the signal_."

Levar nodded, bent down, and suddenly all hell broke loose.

The cyborg imperceptibly straightened and quick as a flash pivoted, raised his tentacled hand, and fired a laser blast at Pratt. The pirate, however, had already danced aside. The Master's laser beam blew apart some barrels behind Pratt; the pirate captain had his own laser pistol out and fired back – at the hovercraft.

Fry dove to the deck, but he saw the first shot explode the hovercraft's windscreen, and the next two fry the interior of the craft. Its engines began to scream dangerously, and it dropped down toward the water, flames gouting from the open hatches and shattered windscreen.

Pirates swarmed the two human guards, who went down in a flurry of sword blows without getting off a shot.

The cyborg was a different story. Pirates rushed him, but he blurred around like a movie on fast forward and knocked six of them flying. Suddenly he was three meters away and firing his laser, killing pirates like a boy frying ants with a magnifying glass.

His blood up, Fry got up from the deck and ran forward, sword raised, when the Master announced, "Enough of this," and raised his other arm.

Something in the air changed, and suddenly every living pirate stopped dead in his tracks. Each had a blank expression of stupefaction. Fry saw Pratt standing, his laser pistol loose in his hand, drool running down his chin.

"Now," the cyborg said to himself, his back to Fry, "to find the jamming device that is cutting off my communications." He turned around, and Fry ducked behind a pile of woven sandbags to hide. He heard the cyborg walk past him, and he held his breath in anticipation. _Whatever he used isn't affecting me. It's just like when the Brains attacked Earth! Okay, Fry, it's all up to you - now what?_ He thought about his friends. _Bender would run – Leela would attack. If I have to choose between Leela and Bender, I know who I'm following_.

The cyborg bent over, back to Fry, and began rummaging through a chest. Fry gathered up his courage, drew in a breath and charged.

His running steps must have alerted the cyborg, because the man/machine hybrid turned with swiftness and lifted one arm toward Fry. Fry swung his sword down and chopped at the cyborg's elbow.

The ceramic blade sliced into the cyborg's outstretched arm near the crook of his arm (if there was one). Fry had expected to see blood; instead, the sword stuck in with a grinding noise and let loose a flurry of sparks. The cyborg pulled that arm away, taking Fry's embedded sword with it, and his other arm smashed Fry in the chest, sending him flying.

Fry hit the deck with a thump, shouting in pain. _Aw, crap that hurts!_

In a flash the cyborg was on him. The damaged arm dangled at the Master's side, sword sticking out ludicrously, but he grabbed Fry's neck with his good hand and lifted the red-head into the air. "Tell me, normal, why is my delta brain wave suppression field not affecting you?" the Master commanded.

"Gack!" was all Fry could say, hanging with a steel grip on his windpipe and his heels in the air. His hands clutched uselessly at the cyborg's strength-enhanced fingers.

"I should take you back to Prime Island for dissection, normal," the Master said thoughtfully. "Your mutation is certainly interesting. Should I terminate you now, or keep you alive until – "

The cyborgs' musings were cut short when a laser bolt exploded his head, sending blood and electronics flying. Fry coughed as blood and little bits of metal peppered his face.

"I'll be the one terminatin' around here," Pratt said, pistol still leveled at the cyborg.

The headless body dropped Fry and turned. Remarkably, it charged Pratt like a resurrected ghoul, but two more shots to the legs and torso finally brought it down.

Fry rose on rubbery legs, hands at his neck. "Good god, that thing was strong!"

Pratt eyed the smoking wreck of the dead cyborg, and nodded. "Strong as demons, they are." He looked up at Fry. "Pretty brave of you, boy, to charge one, alone, with nothing more than a sword."

Fry thought for a moment. "I don't think anyone's ever called me brave before."

"Plus, you saved the day." Pratt gestured around to where pirates were taking up station and bandaging their injuries. "If you hadn't knocked out that stunning thing, we'd all be at the bottom of the sea – or in those devils' experiment pits."

Pratt held out his hand. "Good work, boy."

Fry took his hand, feeling a glow of pride in himself he rarely felt. "Thanks, Captain." _Whadda ya know, Yancy_, he said to his dead father. _I did something right!_

"Get yourself cleaned up, Fry. See me in my cabin afterwards. I have something to show you and Levar."

"Aye Aye, Captain."

-------

The Planet Express ship had come out of a storm over Prime Island, which seemed equal parts bustling sail-era city and green, verdant farm land. They were shepherded toward a line of mountains, and ultimately directed toward the nearest mountain. As they drew closer, its nature became clear.

"My word!" was all Kif could choke out. The others were silent.

What they approached was no mountain, but a multi-tiered fortress of spires, with a central rampart which thrust high into the sky. The structure dwarfed the tallest buildings of New New York, resembling one of the nearby mountains. It was dotted and sprinkled with lights, like some demented monstrous fairy toadstool.

"Land on the pad lit in green," the voice commanded over the comm channel.

"Sure thing," Leela muttered, her every instinct screaming to fire all engines to maximum and run. She brought the Planet Express ship down on the indicated pad, where a group of humanoid figures waited for them, seemingly unaffected by the whipping winds and backdraft from the ship's drive. The three Cyberian raiders that had 'escorted' them here peeled off and flew away.

Another voice, dispassionate but identifiable as a woman's, came over the channel. "Exit your vehicle immediately. Do not bring any weapons or other devices."

Everyone looked at each other, and got up together. "In for a penny…" Amy said. They started taking off tools, scanners and weapons. The Professor was looking quizzically at a number of strange devices he was pulling out of his pockets. Leela carefully put down her emergency back-up pistol, boot gun, and brass knuckles, and saw Amy staring at her. "Girl can't be too prepared!" Leela said cheerfully.

Bender stayed resolutely seated. Hermes said, "Get a move on, ya gearheaded green snake!"

"You heard the nice lady," Bender said. "Leave all devices behind. You guys treat me like some tool, so I'm staying right here!"

Leela's eye narrowed as she stared at Bender. "You want to rethink that, metal boy?"

"Not in the least," Bender said.

Leela smiled broadly. "Good; I love a challenge that combines my love of violence with teaching you a lesson." She cracked her knuckles and advanced on the robot.

Outside the ship, the cyborgs heard a clanging noise, and a roughly humanoid robot tumbled down the forward steps of the Planet Express ship, cursing colorfully as he rolled on the landing pad and came to a stop. Bender stood up and froze as the rest of the crew followed him out.

The icy wind tore at the crew, but the real chill came from confronting the Cyberians. There were eight of them, of varying heights and genders. In the front was a tall, slim woman with long black hair and a monocular implant replacing her right eye. She raised a gloved hand and pointed at them. "Stop and raise your hands above your heads," she said.

They complied. Leela felt somewhat queasy when she realized that the woman's "glove" was actually a bionic hand replacing her organic one. The female cyborg swept over them with her hand, and her readings must have satisfied her, because she gestured them forward. "Single file, and follow me."

Leela led the little line, and the other cyborgs fell in on either side of the column, forming a guard. _Probably *not* an honor guard_, Leela thought.

They were marched to an open lift, where they were dropped down through a maze of levels and floors. Leela was dazzled by the sights – cyborgs of all shapes, sizes and races of humanity purposefully moving about, vast structures of indeterminate purpose and construction and ships drifting about inside the vast space.

"It's so quiet," Amy observed. Leela agreed – there was no murmur of humanity as they would be in a great city on Earth. This place was the Cyberian's metropolis, and it was as silent as a tomb. There was no small talk, or orders, amongst their guards either. Leela supposed they had other ways to communicate.

The cyborgs marched them off a lift and they came to a large blast-proof door, adorned with symbols of uncertain nature. Two cyborgs stood guard, and the female cyborg who had led them here stopped, her little group in tow.

"I see the captives are still alive," one of the guards, another woman, said out loud.

The cyborg who commanded the Planet Express' guard simply stared at the other cyborg.

"Let us not be rude, Cambrien," the door guard said nastily. "Let us communicate verbally."

"You are the one being rude," their escort, Cambrien, finally said. "They are technically visitors, Aurenna, not captives; they may be of use."

_I sure feel like a captive_, Leela thought to herself.

The otherwise expressionless face of Aurenna the guard seemed to sneer. "Tell yourself what you like, Cambrien. Your faction is a minor concern to the Great Ones."

Before Cambrien could respond, there was a vast snapping, like God's light switch had flipped, and the blastproof doors began to swing open.

The two door guards stepped aside, and Cambrien marched the Planet Express crew into the chamber.

The vaulted chamber was partly lit, but much of it was draped in shadows. Within, six cyborgs seated on tall pedestals waited for the group to march in. They wore jumpsuits similar to what the other cyborgs outside had worn, but theirs were adorned with rings in an ancient fashion.

"Spleesh," Amy muttered. "Rings? How seventh millennia."

"Amy!" Leela hissed back.

They stood before the seated cyborgs for long moments, as the man/machine hybrids silently conferred amongst themselves. Then, the central cyborg, a short, powerfully built male encrusted with metal, said simply, "Explain yourselves."

The Planet Express team looked at each other. The Professor raised his hand and said, "I will speak."

"Begin! Our patience with you Earth normals grows thin."

"Begin, eh? Well it all started when my great-to-the-fiftieth-power uncle Philip J. Fry was frozen back in the twentieth century – " The Professor droned on.

"We're boned, aren't we?" Bender stage-whispered to Amy.

"Oh, yeah. We're boned," the intern answered.

"So, so boned," Leela added.


	8. Chapter 8

Part 8

Pratt unstopped a jug of wine and poured a mug out each for Levar and Fry. The two men were sitting at the Captain's table in his cabin, trying not to glower at each other. It was still dark, but after escaping death by "the seat of their pants," as Fry put it, no one was in the mood for sleeping.

Pratt raised his mug and smiled sardonically at the two men. "Well, isn't it just nice, all of us here, eh?" He took a long drink.

Fry raised his cup and drank some of the wine. _Well, I'm no wine expert, but this stuff's not exactly French vintage_. He took another quaff to be sure. _Still lousy. Better than watered rum, though_. He took a third long drink. _I really miss having a cold beer!_ He gulped a fourth drink.

Pratt spoke up. "I reckon I should let you both in on my plan. Levar, you know some of it, but its time you learned the rest. Fry – I'm putting trust in you. I think I can trust you." Pratt put a hand on Fry's shoulder. "Can I?"

"Cap'n, this softie can't be trusted! He's not one of us!"

Pratt slammed his mug on the rough oak table. "Curse it, Levar! This 'softie' saved our hides back there from that devil. Both you and I'd be strapped to an experiments table having our guts removed piece by squishy piece right now if it weren't for Fry!" Pratt spat to the side, and looked at Levar and Fry with cold fury in his eye. "If anything happens to me it falls to you two to carry out my plans, by the sea god, so listen now and listen well!"

Frozen in place, neither Fry nor Levar dared say anything. Pratt got control of himself, and drained his mug. When he put it down, the pirate captain was smiling with sinister good humor. "Look, you two have _got_ to work together. Now, where was I?"

Pouring the three of them more wine, Pratt said, "Levar, remember when the Pirate Council sent us to Yala Island last season?"

Levar furrowed his brow. "Aye, Captain, to buy one hundred barrels of black powder for the cannons."

"There were other things, as well. One was that communications jammer that you used tonight; the other was something that trusty shopkeeper Hammon got for me from very, _very_ far away. Something that we're going to sneak right under those bastard devils' noses at Prime Island."

Pratt stood up and began pacing. "By nine bells tomorrow morning we'll be at the main harbor at Prime Island, just beyond the Great Castle of those metal devils. A whole flotilla of pirate ships will meet us, all disguised like us as honest merchantmen. We'll slip into the harbor by stealth or force, and then deliver our surprise." He seemed to come to a decision, and added, "Follow me."

Levar and Fry looked at each other, both equally puzzled, and followed their pirate captain out of his cabin, across the deck and into the holds of the ship. With all of the excitement, the crew was up and carousing even as it was two bells in the morning, but no one seemed to pay them particular notice.

Pratt led them deep into the holds of the ship, to the reinforced compartment used to store powder for cannon and flintlocks. Inside, he – carefully – took a shielded lantern and took Fry and Levar to the center of the hold, where a long blocky object lay under an oilskin tarp.

Pratt said, "This is one of our little purchases from beyond the stars, me loyal crew." With a flourish, he pulled off the tarp. The long, blocky oval on the wooden pallet was dark camo green, with a DOOP roundel emblazoned on it side in blue and red.

"My God!" Fry exclaimed. "That's from Earth!"

"I don't know where it comes from," Pratt said, "but I know what it does." He flipped up a panel on the casing, revealing a set of controls. "When I blow this thing, it'll send out some sort of signal that will burn out every single mechanical device in the entire world – including our _beloved Masters_."

Fry crouched down next to the device. "Explosively Pumped Flux Compression Generator – ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE BOMB – PLANET SCALE," he read from the stenciling on the side. A memory flashed through his head. _Ow! What was that? Where did I hear that electromag stuff before?_

He gasped. _The Galapagos! Nixon and Wernstrom were going to destroy all the robots with an electromag thingy pulse like this_. Fry stood up and turned to Pratt. "This will seriously damage them – maybe even destroy them."

Pratt nodded. "Set off right by the Great Castle, where their mind core is – it'll wipe out the lot of 'em. We'll finally be free – and they'll all be dead." Pratt seemed to be more excited at the latter than the former.

"Wow," was all Fry could say. Levar seemed equally stunned.

Pratt pulled the tarp back over the bomb and turned to consider the other two men. "So there it is. If something happens to me before we get in position, get down here and turn on the damn thing. Oh, you'll have about five minutes to run like hell – I understand it's gonna be a pretty big boom!" He laughed wickedly. "Well, we all gotta go sometime."

Pratt headed for the hatch out of the hold. "Come one, let's finish off that wine."

-------

"Enough!" the cyborg leader commanded. "No more about your bathroom needs, or the time the neighbor's cat entered into your laboratorium!"

"Oh," the Professor said, "was I talking about that again?"

Leela sighed and stepped forward. "Please, do not judge us by Professor Farnsworth," she implored. "We believe we have a way to save this planet from the oncoming gamma ray burst, but we would need your help."

The silence in the hall extended. Then, one of the other cyborgs – a male with shoulder length red hair – said, "We have considered several plans and have not found one that can keep this planet from becoming sterilized. What would you have that we do not?"

"The tenth allotrope of carbon," the Professor announced, "that's what! My creation – a super-hard, radiation resistant material I call diamondium. I don't suppose you have that, do you? Hmm?" he sneered.

A human group would have burst into a buzz of discussion. The cyborgs sat impassively, communicating silently amongst themselves.

"Such a material would be…unknown to us," the red-headed cyborg ultimately said. "Why should we believe you? And why should you try to help us?"

"There are millions of people living on this planet," Leela said. "Why wouldn't we try to help them?"

"Our relations with normal humans have never been…smooth," the red-headed cyborg said.

"Much has happened between our people - " Leela admitted.

"Mostly you enslaving us," the Professor muttered.

" – but we have to put that aside in these troubled times," Leela finished, restraining the urge to smack the Professor.

"But how could you, simple humans, develop an unknown allotrope of carbon? A new material, harder than anything we have and with radiation-resistant qualities unknown to us?"

"Well, the Professor _is_ a genius," Amy pointed out

"_Mad_ genius," the Professor muttered again under his breath.

"Shut it, ya dink," Hermes hissed back.

"Regardless, we have the specifications and we would be willing to share it with you if you use it to shield the planet," Leela finished, ignoring the others. She had gotten good at that over the years.

"How do we know that you do not come in aid of the pirates?" the red-headed cyborg axed.

"The who?" Amy axed.

"Rebel normals who plague the seas and shores of this world. Humans…like you," the cyborg leader said. "Recently there have been…rumors of their possession of advanced weaponry. How do we know you did not bring it, and this plan is not in furtherance of their schemes?"

"What would we gain from such scheming?" Hermes posited. "Dere's nothing in it for us."

"Then you know nothing of an EMP bomb?" another cyborg asked sharply.

The Planet Express crew looked around at each other, baffled. Finally, Leela said, "We do not know what you're talking about." She shrugged. "We just want to offer our help."

"We must consider this offer," the red-headed cyborg said.

"Nonsense," said the cyborg leader patiently. "No mere organic singleton brain could match our enhanced cerebellums, or our gestalt mind-linkage."

"Oh, are you still doing _that_?" the Professor said dismissively.

"What?" the cyborg leader asked. His machine-like equilibrium was starting to crack.

"The joining of your individual minds. It turned out to be a disaster, you know."

"The gestalt of all of us is the greatest tool we have!" the red-headed cyborg said.

"Actually," Amy said, "the Professor's right. Such a mental joining was demonstrated in 2306 to seriously inhibit creative thought. It's an offshoot of the halting problem…" Amy trailed off as she realized all of the cyborgs were staring at her. She tried again. "You know, related to Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem – "

"You dare!" The cyborg leader's impassivity was completely gone. "You dare use the Great Devil's name!" The guards suddenly appeared and slapped hand restraints on the Planet Express crew.

The leader said nothing verbally, but "take them to the dungeon" seemed the closest equivalent. They were sealed in a small room with an attached, basic bathroom and a forcefield supplementing the hull-metal door.

Amy was sputtering apologies to the others. "How was I supposed to know that math is such a sore point here?" Kif tried to soothe her, but the others glared at her pointedly. Bender said something about "bimbos from Mars."

Leela sank down onto a metal frame cot welded to the wall, more tired than she had felt in a long time. Putting her head in her hands, she leaned forward, elbows on knees, and said, "That didn't go so well. What a surprise."

-------

Fry tried to relax as he clutched a rope in the crow's nest, but his nerves were strung tight. The fight with the cyborg, Pratt's revelations…all of it had his mind revving.

_The fate of every human on this planet rests in Pratt's hands right now_, Fry thought. _And maybe mine. The fate of every cyborg, too_. Fry shook his head. _Can I help with killing *all* of them? Every man, woman and…well, I guess they don't have children. My God, is it really us or them? Pratt's okay with it, but I think he's a little…unhinged_.

To be honest, the whole explosion part bothered him. _Whoever is near that thing is in for a shock_, he thought. _Don't know how big it's going to be, but I'm not sure five minutes will be enough to get away. Do I want to sacrifice Chan and the others? Do I want to sacrifice *myself* for these people?_

As Fry wrestled with his thoughts, the morning mists parted. Stunned with the view, he drew a sharp breath.

The _Matei Pavel_ crashed through the waves a mere five hundred feet from the entrance to Prime Island's harbor. Within the natural shelter of the lagoon, Fry could see the white and gray sails of dozens of sailing ships maneuvering in the water and tied to docks. The city spread out before Fry's perch atop the mainmast, looking like a toy metropolis from childhood memories. The city itself crowded the foot of a massive fortress of black and green, lit with lights and with a variety of flying ships darting and hovering about it. Fry felt a feeling in his heart similar to the first time he had seen the Earth rise from the Moon – and the first time he saw the starlight glint in Turanga Leela's eye, on the deck of the long-lost _Titanic_.

_Millions of light-years from home, a thousand years from when I was born, perched on a sailing ship's mast, and I get to see sights like this_, Fry thought. _If only my brother could see me now! I suppose I could die happy_.

His smile turned sour. _But I'd really rather not_.

Levar called him down, and Fry scrambled down the ropes to the deck of the merchantman. "What up?" he said to the sailor.

Levar gave him a look, and said, "Cap'n wants to see you at the prow."

Fry nodded, and set off for the bow of the ship. The crew moved about, barely contained tension thrumming the air. Pratt had gathered them together at five bells and told them that a great battle would take place today, and they would all get their reward at the end. He had scattered a chest of metal trading ingots amongst the crew, exciting them and inflaming their greed. They would fight eagerly today, looking for payback – both spiritual and monetary – against the Masters.

Pratt was standing at the prow, hands on the hilts of his swords and eyes forward, when Fry came up to him. "Levar said you wanted to see me, sir?"

"We're almost there," Pratt said without turning around.

"The harbor, you mean?"

"In a little while we'll be through the mouth into the harbor, Fry, without a single challenge." Pratt rubbed his forehead with one hand. "In the harbor are thirty pirate ships, all disguised and ready to fight if we need them to. This is it."

The pirate captain turned to Fry. "Are you ready?"

Fry gulped. "I suppose so."

The corner of Pratt's mouth turned up. "You'll know for sure when the shot starts flying." At that point, the _Matei Pavel_ swept passed the rocky points marking the lagoon, and was within the harbor of Prime Island.

He clapped Fry on the shoulder. "Get to your station, boy. The fun starts now."

Fry nodded once, and headed back toward the rear of the ship. He ran into Chan, who was perched on a crate, coiling a rope and looking around nervously.

"Fry!" the man called out. Fry stopped and greeted his friend. Chan leaned in towards him and said, "What's going on? Will there be a battle?"

"I don't know, Chan." Fry lowered his voice. "But whatever happens, it's important. I think what happens today may be remembered forever."

Chan shook his head. "I don't want to be important, Fry! I want to live in a little shack by the water's edge and get a girl and a bunch of kids and _never, ever_ be remembered!" His voice got a little loud at the end, and some other pirates looked at him. Sheepish, Chan lowered his voice. "You get _remembered_ because you died in some loud, spectacular way."

"Being important isn't all it's cracked up to be," Fry agreed. He looked at his worried friend with sympathy, and came to a decision. "Chan, I can't tell you what's going on. But I would suggest this," he whispered. "Shore is only a few hundred feet away. You might want to jump for it when things get hectic and get as far from this harbor as you can."

Chan looked at him with amazement. "You have to come with me, Fry! It's too dangerous here."

"I can't abandon Pratt now, Chan. It's…I just can't," Fry said, lamely. He couldn't really explain it.

Chan studied him for a moment, and then nodded. "I always did think you were important, Fry." He turned back to his work.

Fry walked away. Chan hadn't said it like a compliment.

There was a sudden boom in the distance. A geyser of water shot up on the starboard side of the _Matei Pavel_. Fry looked up and saw smoke from cannon shot wisping away before a ship approaching them, full sails up. It flew the gear, lightning bolt and sword flag of the duke of Prime Island.

"Looks like the Masters' lapdogs are onto us, boys!" Pratt bellowed from the prow back at his crew. "Let's show 'em what free men can do!"

A loud cheer rose up from the crew. It doubled in volume as the duke's ship suddenly exploded in a hail of fire and splinters, its magazine hit. Fry followed the shot back and saw a tubby fishing boat turn towards the _Matei Pavel_, crewmen scurrying around reloading a cannon that looked out of place amongst the nets. With roars of approval from the _Pavel_'s crew, the fishing boat hoisted the skull-and-crossbones, and its crew saluted the _Matei Pavel_.

All around the harbor, the duke's patrol ships were hoisting sail and moving to converge on the _Matei Pavel_. Equally numerous, dozens of otherwise innocuous boats and ships were sprouting cannon and raising the pirate flag. Cannon shot began booming, and on shore Fry could see people standing, gaping in shock at a pirate attack right in Prime Island's harbor.

The battle had truly begun.


	9. Chapter 9

Part 9

"Tack us to port, Mr. Levar," Pratt bellowed as the starboard cannon roared again and the shot blew apart the rigging of a loyalist sloop. "Good shot!" Pratt yelled back to the cannon crew.

Fry and Chan rolled a barrel of powder from the hatch where others had lifted it over to the cannon mount so that the gunners could reload. Around them, the crew swarmed on rigging and at cannon mounts, keeping the _Matei Pavel_ both moving and shooting.

The harbor was alive with ships darting to and fro, some grappling with others and sending over boarders, others on flames and sinking into the depths with their crew swimming for their lives. Despite the furious battle, everyone aboard the _Matei Pavel_ wondered – where were the Masters? When would they join the fight with their monstrous ships and awesome weapons?

Just then, a massive blast rocked the _Matei Pavel_, tossing pirates about and knocking Fry to his knees. He got up and saw a cloud of steam rising from a wrecked pirate ship, sinking behind them. A shadow passed over them and the space ship curved around, its outline blurred by the sun.

"Looks like the Masters have joined the fight, me boys!" Pratt shouted. He had a wild grin on his face and his eyes were bright with excitement. "Let's give 'em some fun! Levar – our extra surprise!"

As Levar ran off to a storage locker, Fry shaded his eyes and looked up at the ship. Its tapered fish shape was achingly familiar. His eyes widened with surprise. "That's not a Masters' ship!"

He started jumping up and waving. "It's my friends!"

The Planet Express ship dove down from the cloud deck and opened fire on a fishing boat grappling with a patrol ship. The fishing boat exploded in broken timbers and flames.

Another pirate, Big Hugh, tackled Fry, knocking him to the ground. "Some friends!" he rumbled in Fry's ear. "Keep your head down!"

Fry struggled to no avail with the burly pirate. "They _are_ my friends, dammit! I don't know why they're shooting pirates, but let me talk to them!"

"No bringin' attention to us," Big Hugh said. He held Fry down with practiced ease. "Besides, no talkin' necessary." He nodded toward Pratt. Fry could turn his head enough to see the pirate captain.

Pratt was waving his fist at the Planet Express ship as it swooped around, laser guns blazing at another pirate ship. "Curse that hell bird!"  
Levar handed a large tube to the pirate leader, grinning evilly. "Ask and ye shall receive, Captain." Pratt took the object from Levar and hoisted it on his shoulder, tracking the bulbous green cargo hauler as it swept along the water.

Fry saw the stenciled writing on the side of the tube. "DOOP Anti-Ship Homing Missile – FIRE and FORGET." His heart beat ice-water for a moment.

"NO!" Fry shouted. He fought harder under Big Hugh, trying to escape the pirate's iron grip. The man held him fast, however. He tried to swing his hook at Big Hugh's face, but the man blocked his arm easily.

"Let me up!"

"Shut up, ya dink, or I'll – " Big Hugh's threat was cut off by a loud cracking noise, and his eyes rolled up in his head. The big pirate fell off Fry and clunked to the deck neck to him, unconscious.

Chan stood over them, a heavy wooden stave in his hands and a look of determination on his face. Fry jumped to his feet and grabbed Chan's forearm in thanks. "I've got to stop Pratt," he said, turning.

"I'm going overboard," Chan said. "Last chance to come with me!"

"Sorry, friend," Fry said, already running towards Pratt and Levar, "I've got to help my Captain! Good luck!" he shouted.

As he ran towards them, Pratt was balancing the missile launcher on his shoulder, trying to sight on the Planet Express ship looping around for another attack run. "STOP!" Fry shouted as he approached the men.

Levar, evil grin never leaving his face, smashed a club into Fry's stomach as he ran toward them, sending the red-head sprawling. Fry threw out his arms as he fell, and his hook tilted and caught a U-ring on the side of the missile launcher. Pratt spun around on his heels, squawking, as Fry's momentum tumbled both of them to the ground.

Flame and smoke spouted from the tail of the tube, knocking Levar back twenty feet. The missile shot from the launcher, soared into the air and, not detecting a target in its approved sensor area, fail-safed itself off and splashed harmlessly into the water.

-------

The forcefield hummed off, and the door to their cell creaked open. Leela jumped to her feet, unsure of what to expect. She took up an Arcturan kung-fu stance.

The cyborg that had escorted them from the landing pad, Cambrien, walked in. The implant replacing her right eye glowed bright emerald. She looked around the cell at each of them. "Come – we haven't much time."

"What? What are you talking about?" Leela asked.

Cambrien studied the mutant for a moment. "Not all of us are dismissive of your offer of assistance," she said finally. "We may have a gestalt mind-linkage, but we are not hive creatures."

"Obviously," Hermes said. "But what does dat have to do wid us?"

"My faction believes we can convince the others of your good faith and utility – if you assist us with a related problem."

"Oh great," Leela said. She sat on the bed. "What's _this_ FedEx quest?"

Cambrien paused. "You are referencing twentieth-century video games? Are you familiar with those?"

"Learned it from…a friend," Leela muttered. "Listen, what do you want from us?"

"The humans of this planet – not all accept our rule. As we described, pirates attack our settlements. Some have even dared attack Enhanced, although they of course pay dearly for that arrogance."

"Of course," Amy said sarcastically. "Glad to hear not everyone has laid down and died. What does this have to do with us?"

"The pirates have an EMP bomb."

"Dat's de second time you've mentioned dat," Hermes noted. "What's dat mean?"

"An EMP bomb is a weapon designed to use against combat robots – or cyborgs," the Professor said. "It will fry advanced electronics and destroy computers – like those our friends here use."

"It will destroy your robot companion as well," Cambrien said, pointing at Bender.

Hermes shrugged. "I can live wit dat."

"So how big is this thing?" Leela asked.

Kif coughed. "Excuse me, but I have some knowledge of these devices. The DOOP has a number of grades of these weapons; the biggest will blanket a whole planet, and will punch through almost any shielding. If the pirates have something like that, it will destroy every piece of advanced electronics on this planet, and in immediate orbit."

"Oh crap," Leela said. "If the pirates set it off, the cyborgs will be wiped out -"

"- and in eight years plus," Amy finished for her, "the humans will be, too."

"So what do you want _us_ to do about it?" Leela asked Cambrien.

"Go amongst the humans of this world. Find this EMP bomb and disable it, or bring it to us. My faction can leverage this act of good faith to sway the rest of the gestalt to your side."

"So you want us to do your dirty work, so that you will then let us do you a favor?" Leela said angrily. "Well, this bites."

"We have managed to get you out of custody, Captain Turanga. If you follow me, I can lead you to your ship. What you do from there is up to you," Cambrien said.

Cambrien turned to exit the cell, and Leela said, "Wait!"

The cyborg turned. "Yes?"

"You have to do something for us," the cyclops said, trying to keep her voice even. "We've lost a friend of ours on this planet, a human male named Philip J. Fry. Help us find him. Please."

Cambrien said nothing for a long moment. Leela realized the cyborg must be consulting with others. Then she nodded. "We believe we can locate this Fry. If you give us a description, we will distribute it amongst our human supporters. They will ultimately find him."

Leela let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Thank you," she said. "Then we will look for your bomb."

"Leela," Amy said, "do you think this is wise?"

Leela turned on her crewmates. "We have to do it anyway, if we're going to get anywhere with these damned cyborgs," she said. "We might as well get their help looking for Fry. He wouldn't give up on us, and I'm not giving up on him!"

Bender said, "I volunteer to look in the bars and strip joints!" When the others glared at him, he said, "What? They're the best places to look for Fry! Believe me!"

Cambrien suddenly seemed agitated. "I have…a development."

"What?" Leela was excited. "Have you news of Fry already?"

"No," Cambrien said slowly. "But we do have news of the EMP bomb."

-------

The Great Castle of the cyborgs was like an anthill upturned as the Planet Express crew ran after Cambrien to the landing pad that held their ship.

"The gestalt has forbidden any Enhanced ships from participating in the battle," Cambrien explained as she loped along. Leela was impressed at the cyborg's speed, and her ability to talk without gasping for breath as she sprinted. Leela herself was not in peak physical shape as she had neglected her exercise regimen lately in the fight against Leo Wong.

"We are afraid that Enhanced appearing in the fight would encourage the pirates to detonate the EMP bomb early," Cambrien explained. "We expect our local supporters to stop them."

"So you're sure that it's in the harbor?" Amy asked, only slightly winded. Leela felt a stab of irritation; apparently Amy had found time to keep up with _her_ exercise routine.

"Our sensors have confirmed the emission spectra from the trigger of the bomb. The weapon is in the harbor aboard a pirate vessel, although we cannot determine which one."

"And you want us to stop it?" Hermes gasped. Leela noted no matter how far she had let herself go, she was nowhere as bad as the portly bureaucrat. Only Bender - who didn't breathe - and the Professor - who was being carried by the robot - seemed unaffected by the pace.

They stepped onto a lift and started rising, as the Planet Express team took a break from running. Cambrien said, "My faction has modeled the scenario, and does not believe the harbor patrol will be able to stop the pirates before they are in optimal position. While the gestalt instituted a program of shielding vital connections and computer cores, we have not shielded very much. Even worse, if the pirates reach the optimal position near the central core the shielding we do have will be overwhelmed.

"We cannot break the gestalt's prohibition on Enhanced ships, but we can turn to you," Cambrien said. "You must stop the pirates."

"We'll stop the rotten, machine-hating bastards!" Bender declared.

As the lift smoothly stopped on the landing pad, Leela shouted over the wind, "_If_ you help us find Fry – and save this world."

Cambrien nodded. It seemed like a foreign gesture to her. "My faction will help you find your friend. If you stop the bomb, we can try to sway the gestalt to adopt your plan. Other than that, there is little we can offer you." Cambrien didn't seem to need to shout to be heard over the gusts of wind.

Leela looked around the group. Her gaze lingered on the Professor, who nodded his assent and on Amy, who said, "Let's do it."

Leela nodded brusquely. "Alright, everybody aboard!"

There were two cyborg guards at the landing steps, but neither even looked at them as the streamed aboard the Planet Express ship. Leela settled into the command chair and began running through the pre-flight checklist. "Amy, take the engineering board. Bender, run scanners. Dr. Zoidberg, please head to the sick bay in case we have injuries. Um, and…you – " she said, pointing.

"I'm Scruffy. The janitor."

"Go with Dr. Zoidberg in case he needs assistance," Leela said. The Decapodian and the human headed out of the bridge.

"That gets them out of my hair," Leela muttered. "Now we just have to avoid getting injured." She looked at Kif. "How's your shooting, Lt. Kroker?"

Kif paled a little. "My marksmanship scores at the Academy were middling. I was much better at the etiquette courses…"

Leela frowned and looked at Hermes, LaBarbara, and the Professor in turn. Sighing, she said, "You're military; get up to the turret, please." Kif saluted her, kissed Amy goodbye and left the bridge.

Cambrien sat herself on the couch in the front, next to where the Professor gently lowered himself. Leela noticed that Hermes and LaBarbara stayed far away from the cyborg.

"Are you coming with us?" Leela asked sharply.

Cambrien looked at her steadily and said, "Yes."

Leela locked eyes with the cyborg for a moment, and nodded. "Okay." She noted, irrelevantly, that they each only had one eye.

Leela finished her check list and spun up the engines, reflexively checking all of the displays and gauges again. "Alright, let's punch this mother!" she said, and pulled back on the wheel.

The ship lifted off of the pad, and the landing gear retracted. Leela slammed the drive on and the ship shot away from the fortress toward the harbor.

"Impressive performance," Cambrien said blandly.

"She's my own design," the Professor said proudly. "Take that, you electronic mongrel!"

Cambrien said nothing.

"Any sign of pursuit?" Leela axed Bender.

"Huh? What?" Bender put down his beer and looked at the scanner. "No, nothing - but that giant battle ahead of us!"

The ship was soaring over the glittering, white-capped harbor and ships were slowly moving to and fro below them, flames and smoke belching from cannon and the waters stirred by missing shot. Several wrecks were aflame, sinking into the water, while small dots – frantic sailors – tread water, trying to avoid being sucked down by their sinking ships.

"Arming lasers," Leela said. With a switch, the ship's primary laser cannons slid out of their sheaths.

"All engines and shields online and green," Amy reported.

"Take out the rebel ships in that line," Cambrien said, pointing. "Open up a hole to let the patrol ships through."

Leela snarled at the cyborg's tone, but the nose dropped down, and Leela lined up a ship with the cannon. The converted fishing vessel hovered in the forward window, and Leela's thumbs stroked the firing buttons.

"Fire!" Cambrien urged.

_What am I doing?_ Leela thought. _Those pirates are just fighting for their freedom. Can I really just slaughter them? It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Fish who are in the right!_

Leela narrowed her eye. _Come on, Turanga! Those poor men don't know it, but they're going to doom their whole world. This is for the best_.

_I wonder how many murderers tell themselves that?_

She squeezed the trigger buttons and lasers bolts blew the converted fishing boat to steam, flame and wreckage. Leela swept the nose of the ship across the line, blasting three ships in a row before yanking the Planet Express ship up and barrel-rolling it over in a loop, giving Kif some shots with the laser turret. Hermes and LaBarbara grabbed each other as the view in the windows gyrated crazily, but the ship's gravity kept its internal frame of reference steady.

Leela strafed the mass of sailing ships again, carefully targeting ships devoid of the seal of the local nobility. She lifted up and brought the Planet Express ship around again, getting ready to fire again.

"Missile launch! Missile launch!" Bender suddenly yelled, pushing away in fear from his console.

"Shit," Leela said, slamming the throttle and climbing fast. "Vector?"

"Guh – scratch that," Amy said, puzzled. She was leaning over a cowering Bender. "It just dead-headed. I've got a confirmed splashdown."

Leela turned her eye to her display, which was showing the location of the thermal bloom from the missile's launch. It was the deck of a pirate ship, deep in the mass of scrumming vessels.

Leela gasped. "FRY!" She saw the orange-headed man prone on the deck, struggling with a pirate.

She whipped the Planet Express ship around, headed right for the central mass of wooden vessels. "Amy," she said, trying to keep her voice steady and failing, "get ready to take the controls."


	10. Chapter 10

Part 10

After he and Pratt had tumbled to the deck, someone had been knocked over onto Fry, driving the breath out of him. As he gathered his strength and pushed an unconscious pirate off of him, he staggered to his feet just in time to see the Planet Express ship's bulk come to a blazing stop and hover over the deck of the _Matei Pavel_. The front landing stairs swung down, and a purple-haired woman with one eye came bounding down.

"Fry!" Leela yelled.

Her pony-tail streaming behind her, and her muscular legs flying, Fry thought she was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

"Leela, look out!" Fry shouted.

Leela spun through the air and knocked out the first pirate lunging at her with a sword. The second swung his blade over her head as she ducked, and then fell to the ground after two swift punches to his stomach and face.

Leela straightened up and ran over to Fry's side. "Fry, thank god you're okay!" She grabbed him around the waist.

"Leela – I'm so happy to see you," Fry said, tears in his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Ow!" she said, pulling away. "Fry, my god – your hand!" She took his arm in her hands, staring at his hook. "You poor thing!" Leela had known Fry had lost his hand, but her whole life had been lived in a society able to quickly and easily re-grow body parts; she had no concept of permanent disfigurement like this.

"Oh, it's not that bad!" Fry said. "Kinda cool, actually. I just have to remember which hand to use to scratch."

Despite her concern at his injury, Leela laughed and hugged him tighter. "Oh, Fry. I've missed you so."

"Me too. I mean, I've missed _you_; I can't really miss myself, can -"

Fry's run-on sentence was interrupted by Levar throwing himself at Leela from behind.

The three tumbled to the ground, Levar jumping up quickly and waving a sword. His clothing was singed from the missile's backblast, and his skin had dirt and char on it, but he seemed unhurt.

Levar brandished the sword at Fry. "You treacherous cur! After all the Cap'n did for you! After saving you!" He growled. "I knew you were no good, softie."

Fry held Leela. Her eye was closed, and she was unconscious. He looked up at Levar with fury in his eyes. "You hurt her, you bastard!"

Levar laughed mirthlessly. "Oh, I'll be doing more than that as payback, softie. And you'll be watching it." He advanced on the pair.

Fry reached into Leela's boot and pulled out her hidden laser pistol. He pointed it at Levar. "Stop right there. Drop the sword."

The pirate looked long and hard at Fry. The twentieth-century man was pale, and his hand shook slightly as he pointed the weapon. "You don't have the stones, softie," Levar said dismissively.

"Try me," Fry said. His hand trembled, but his eyes were steady.

Levar narrowed his eyes. He tossed his sword from hand to hand. "Can you shoot that thing?" he asked.

"Too many years of video games," Fry said. His voice cracked a bit. "Put the sword down."

"Okay," Levar said. He feinted, and charged at Fry and Leela.

The first blast caught Levar in the chest. The next, a fraction of a second later, blew off part of his head.

The third blast, from a heavy weapon, set Levar's corpse on fire. It slumped, mangled and bloody, at Fry's feet.

Fry looked up. Bender was on the landing leg, Zuban cigar lit in his mouth, laser rifle in his manipulators. "What?" the robot growled. "You still owe me fifty bucks!"

"Thanks, old buddy." Fry put his right arm under Leela's shoulders, and lifted her to her feet. Although other pirates were watching the pair with angry eyes, no one wanted to chance the metal man with the heavy rifle standing over them.

Fry half-carried, half-dragged Leela to the foot of the ladder. She groaned, and her eye fluttered open. "Did somebody get the number of that bus?" she whispered.

"Thank god you're okay, Leela," Fry said, a smile breaking out on his face.

Leela shook herself, and pulled away from Fry. "Thanks for the help," she said. She noticed the chaos around them, and Bender standing above them. "Bender, are you..._covering_ us?"

"What? Of course not! What kind of robot do you take me for? I'm just – trying to decide where to loot. Yeah! Those pirates got treasure, ya know." Bender seemed embarrassed.

Amy's voice came over the loudspeaker from the ship. "We have a battle to intervene in, folks!"

Fry turned to Leela. "Which reminds me – WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Fry shouted. "Why are you helping those cyborgs? Aren't they the bad guys? Aren't us pirates the good guys?"

"We don't have a choice, Fry!" Leela shouted back, feeling defensive.

"Oh," Fry said. Fry thought for a second. He ran his good hand over Leela's head. "Is it mind-control? Hypnosis? I can't find any implants or anything. It's hypnosis, isn't it? Do you want my tinfoil hat?"

Leela knocked his hand away, irritated. "Fry, you idiot! It's nothing like that! There's a gamma ray burst bearing down on this planet, remember? The Professor has a plan to build a space shield to save the whole world, but only the cyborgs have the industrial base to implement it!" Leela struggled to control the disgust gnawing at her.

"But…the Masters?"

"Who else is going to build a space-based shield, Fry?" Leela gestured to encompass the wooden sailing ship around them. "Your pirates?"

"But…Leela," Fry said quietly, "they _hurt children_."

Leela thought her heart would break at his words and the look of disappointment in his eyes. "I know, Fry," she said, a tear forming in her eye. "But what can we do? I've thought long and hard about this and I don't know what else to do!" She started sobbing as her inner conflict finally erupted.

Fry wrapped his arms around her again. Leela lay her head on his shoulder and sniffled. Fry said quietly in her ear, "You'll think of something, Leela. You always do. I trust you. And we'll deal with this – together."

Leela smiled and looked into Fry's eyes. "Thank you, my sweet goofbag." She kissed him, took a deep breath, and then broke free. Putting her hands on her hips, she said, "I guess first thing's first. Do you know where the EMP bomb is?"

Fry nodded. "Two decks under our feet."

"Oh your god!" Bender wailed from his spot on the landing stairs. "You mean I'm _standing_ _over it_?"

"Come on! We've got to disarm it," Leela said.

Fry looked at her, and nodded. "Follow me."

Leela must have been feeling better, Fry thought, because any pirate in their way was summarily dispatched by a roundhouse kick or flurry of punches. The pair quickly reached the entry, and dropped through the hatch into the main hold.

The merchantman's double-sized hold was crammed with trading metal ingots, but Fry led them deftly through the shadow-dappled space toward the rear where the more tightly constructed powder room was. As they moved to that door, a pirate launched himself at Leela from a hidden space between two chests.

She caught his neck in one hand, pivoted on one foot, and slammed the hapless assailant's head into a bulkhead. Dropping his nerveless body to the floor, she asked Fry, "Are we there yet?"

Fry grinned at her and opened up the door to the powder room, then stepped in with Leela close behind him.

In the center of the powder room the two saw the dull camo bulk of the EMP bomb, its covering tarp pulled off and pooled on the floor next to it. Standing over the bomb, fiddling at the control panel, was Pratt.

"Freeze!" Leela shouted, pointing her laser pistol two-handed at the pirate captain. Fry didn't remember when she had taken it back from him.

Pratt turned a bright, sardonic smile on her. "Ah, you must be Fry's lassie! A pretty one he has himself, if you don't mind me saying, even with but a single eye." His grin vanished. "I wouldn't think you'd be working for those metal devils, though."

"Move away from the bomb," Leela commanded.

"Why don't you put away your gun, dear?" Pratt asked. "I don't think you want to be shooting that off in here." He waved around him at the barrels of gunpowder and explosives.

Leela's eye narrowed, her hands lowering slightly. "I don't need a gun to stop you."

"Leela," Fry implored. "Let me try." He stepped forward, hands out. "Captain Pratt, listen to me. This is hard to believe, but there's….a wave. A wave of fire, headed this way – toward your world, from the stars." Fry started talking faster as he was more sure of himself. "It won't get here today, and it won't get here tomorrow, but in a little more than eight years it will get here and it will burn every…living…thing. Everywhere!"

Fry took another step forward, trying not to startle the pirate. "My friends have a plan to shield this world from this fire, but they need the tools and the machines the Masters have. If the Masters die today, everything in the whole world – men, women and children, animals and plants – will die in eight years."

Pratt looked at Fry with something like amazement. "Fire from space? A shield? What kind of story is this?"

"You don't believe me, do you?" Fry said sadly. He looked down at his feet.

The three stood for a few seconds in a tableau. Leela held her breath, looking at Fry and the pirate captain.

"Yes," Pratt said tiredly, "You know what? I do believe you, boy."

The pirate captain turned back to the bomb. "I just don't care."

Fry froze for a moment in shock, and then dove at Pratt. The man knocked him to the ground with a cuff across his back.

Leela started to move, but Fry shouted, "NO! Leela, he's _my_ problem." She stopped in place, pistol still half-raised, unsure what to do.

Fry got to his feet and said, "It doesn't have to be about revenge, Captain. I know you want to hurt them because of your family. I know - "

Pratt turned to him, face mottled with rage. "You _know_, eh? Eh, boy? You don't _know_ anything." He pointed at Leela. "Come back and talk to me after they've gutted your sweetie like a lab rat, taking her one eye out of her flensed skull like some sort of prize. Then you'll _know_."

Pratt took a deep breath, and the smirk returned to his face. "No, boy, we won't be talkin' this one out. Come and stop me if you can." Pratt drew out a curved cutlass which gleamed in the little light in the hold. Fry realized with a start that it was made of metal.

Pratt nodded at Fry's recognition. "I made this one myself, boy. Took six weeks hammering on metal I pulled out of one of those devil's spines, but it worked." He pointed the tip at Fry and said, "Let's see if you learned anything from me, boy."

Fry stood, his hands empty. "I don't have a sword."

"Well, that'll teach you to be more prepared," Pratt said evilly, taking a step forward.

"Hey meatbag! You can borrow mine!" Bender said. The robot had followed them down the hold, curiosity about what riches awaited overcoming his caution. Disgusted at the "treasure," Bender came to watch the fight.

Fry, Leela and Pratt all turned to look at the robot, Pratt with revulsion clearly on his face. Bender opened his chest door and pulled out a pink-edged sword, which he slid across the floor to Fry. "Careful with that, sweatsock! It's lined with electromatter."

Fry picked up the sword and looked at it. "Matter's bad-ass grandmother!" he said in wonder.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha!" Bender laughed. "You're going to get yours now, Grubby the Pirate! Electro-matter'll cut through anything!"

"Good," Pratt said grimly. "Then after I kill Fry, I'll use it to cut out your filthy metal tongue." He charged Fry. Pratt swung low at Fry's legs.

Fry parried the blow and spun about, slamming his fist into Pratt's side. The pirate captain leaped away, wheezing and smiling. "Nice move, boy."

Leela was amazed – she hadn't seen Fry move so fast since he had been infested with parasitic worms.

Pratt said, "How about this one?" and sliced toward Fry.

Fry blocked the blade short of his head, but dropped with a scream of pain as Pratt kicked the side of his left knee.

"Fry!" Leela shouted.

Pratt raised his sword and swung overhand down on Fry's head. Leela brought up her laser pistol. _Don't miss, Leela_, she thought desperately. _Don't miss_. Her arms seemed to be moving through molasses.

Fry leaped forward from his crouch and drove his head into Pratt's stomach, knocking the pirate captain back. Fry's sword swept up in an arc, and Pratt's sword clattered to the floor - along with two of his fingers.

Fry stood over Pratt, sword pointing at his chest, leaning heavily on his right leg and breathing hard. The pirate was on the floor, his back up against a box of shot. Pratt's left hand was in his lap, clutching his mangled right.

"Yield, Captain!" Fry said hoarsely.

Pratt smiled up at him. "You learned good, boy." He coughed and grimaced. "Real good." His expression changed. "But I'll never yield." Pratt looked curiously at Fry's electro-matter sword. "That really is as sharp as the metal man says." He seemed to come to a decision.

"Here," Pratt said, "let me solve one problem for you." Pratt put his palms down, gathered himself and thrust up.

Fry stared in horror as Pratt impaled himself on his sword, driving the electro-matter-edged blade into his chest. Pratt howled in pain, but did not relent.

Fry dropped the sword and stepped back, falling as his knee went out. The sword remained jabbed through Pratt, the hilt sticking obscenely out of the pirate captain's dirty laced greatcoat.

Leela ran to Fry's side, putting a hand on his shoulder as they watched Pratt die.

The pirate captain smiled one last time, gurgled up blood and said, "It's all yours, now, Fry. Do the right thing. _Remember the ship_!" His mouth went slack and his eyes went dull.

"Oh my god," was all Fry could say, staring at the body.

"I'm sorry, Fry," Leela said to him. She pulled his head against her chest. "I'm so sorry. You tried."

"I tried," Fry mumbled back, still staring at Pratt's corpse.

"Hey, skintubes, we still got this thing to deal with," Bender said, pointing a thumb at the EMP bomb.

Leela gave Fry a squeeze, and moved over to the bomb's control panel. She used the comm on her wrist-thing to raise Kif on the ship. "I'm at the device; it says it's a DOOP Planet Scale EMP bomb."

"Roger. Tell me, Leela, is the device set to standby?" Kif asked.

Leela looked at the control panel. "Oh Lord! It says it's armed, and is asking for the trigger code."

"Alright." Kif racked his memory. "If you tell it to go to standby, it should do that and de-arm itself without needing a code."

Leela started to input instructions when a long groan from Fry caused her to twirl around.

The red-head had propped himself to his feet. Although he looked unsteady, there was a fierce cast to his face and determination shown in his eyes. "Damn them," Fry said with cold fury in his voice. "Damn them!"

Leela had never seen Fry so angry. "Fry, what do – "

"Step away from the bomb, Leela," Fry said.

"Fry, I – "

"I said step away from it," Fry said, hobbling forward. With a bone-chilling yank, Fry pulled his sword from Pratt's chest. Blood dripped from the blade onto the rough wooden timbers of the deck as he advanced.

Leela was still before the bomb, unsure of what was going on. Fry stopped in front of her. "I have an idea, Leela. Trust me."

Leela frowned, but then nodded. "I trust you, Fry," she said. Her heart swelled as he flashed her his goofy smile.

"Oh, _trust me_, he says! I knew I didn't need to look around for a suicide booth," Bender said tiredly as he sat down. "You two are doing a fine job with getting us killed!"


	11. Chapter 11

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**:Good News Everybody! Comedy Central just announced that it was picking up 26 new episodes of the greatest TV show of the 31st Century – FUTURAMA'S Back, Baby!

I suppose that means I should stop writing this – oh, who am I kidding? I'm having way too much fun! Thank you for everyone for reading and commenting!

__________________________

Part 11

"Attention cyborgs," Fry said into Leela's wrist-thingy. He looked up at Leela. "Can they hear me?"

"Cambrien can receive you, and I assume she can relay it from there."

"Oh, okay." Fry leaned down again. "This is Philip J. Fry, of the Planet Express ship."

"I am receiving you, Philip J. Fry," Cambrien's tinny voice came out of the speaker. "Have you disabled the EMP bomb?"

"No. And I don't intend to."

"What do you mean?" Cambrien's voice didn't change, but Leela thought she could detect tension.

"Halt the attacks by the duke's ships. Pull them back to dock. I need to speak to the Pirate Brethren, and then we'll talk about disabling the bomb." Fry said.

"I assume you are attempting to blackmail us with the EMP bomb. How do we know you have the trigger password? Why should we believe you are any more willing than your Normal friends to kill everyone on this world?"

Fry smiled, more to himself than the invisible cyborg. "Because I'm_ a pirate_," he said. Fry hobbled over to the bomb, and typed in 'Matei Pavel.'

"Trigger activated," the bomb said in a calm Amphibosian voice. "One Hundred and Eighty seconds to detonation. One Hundred and Seventy-Nine seconds to detonation. One Hundred and – "

"FRY!" Leela screamed.

"Trust me, Leela!" Fry yelled back.

A crash sounded from above decks. Suddenly Amy's voice was shouting through Leela's communicator. "_Diu lan!_ She's on her way!"

Leela and Fry barely had time to get their weapons up when Cambrien came smashing through the timbered ceiling of the powder room, showering fragments and dust on them.

Fry swung his electro-matter-edged sword at the cyborg. In a flash, she caught his wrist and tossed him aside like a sack of potatoes. _Good God!_ Fry had a second to think before he slammed against the wall. _She's faster than anything I've ever seen!_

Leela was faster. The mutant drove the heel of her right boot directly into Cambrien's forehead with a powerful kick, sending the cyborg stumbling back. Leela landed on her feet and kicked again into Cambrien's chin with a shouted "Hi-YAH!", a hit that would have sent a purely organic foe to the floor.

The cyborg shook off Leela's kicks, however, and swung with a shattering blow. Leela dove out of the way barely in time, hearing the smash of wood by her head where Cambrien had driven her fist through the reinforced bulkhead.

The two kicked and punched at each other in a flurry of moves. Leela landed hits several times, but barely seemed to slow the cyborg down. The more powerful strikes from Cambrien came within millimeters of landing on Leela, but she dodged each of them with lethal grace.

Finally, Cambrien's elbow drove into Leela's gut, doubling her over. The cyborg then caught Leela by the throat with one hand, and drew back her other fist to pummel the mutant spaceship captain. _Oh man_, Leela thought dazedly, _this wang chungs!_

There was a sudden sharp ozone smell and the _crack_ of shorting electrical circuits. Cambrien's emerald implant went dull, and the cyborg fell over, releasing her titanium grip on Leela's throat.

Behind the fallen cyborg, Amy stood with a two-foot long prod which still shedding sparks; Kif was behind her gingerly holding a laser rifle. Leela got up, rubbing her neck and with a question in her eye. "Something the Professor whipped up," Amy explained. "I high-tailed it down here as quick as I could." Leela nodded curtly. "Thanks – I'm not sure I had much more in me; better turn that off around all this gunpowder, though." Amy complied.

"Thanks for the help, Fry," Leela said half-sarcastically as she turned around. "Fry?" she asked again with a worried voice when there was no response.

"You seemed to be doing okay," Fry finally said as he unfolded himself from where he had dropped near the bulkhead.

Leela grinned at him and then ran over to the bomb as she heard it say, "Ninety-Four seconds to detonation…" Leela toggled the device back to standby, and sighed.

Fry came and stood next to her. She turned her eye on him. "So is _this_ going according to your plan?"

"Nope," he cheerfully said. "I thought I'd do a little better in the fight, to be honest."

Leela rolled her eye.

Fry gave Kif the trigger code and asked him to stand guard over the bomb. They then dragged Cambrien's nerveless body up topside, and discovered the battle was over. The harbor patrol ships were making sail for the wharfs along the dock-front, and in the air Cyberian raiders circled, but carefully kept their distance from the pirate flotilla.

"I think they're taking you seriously," Leela told Fry with some amazement.

"Good," he said. "Now I need to address the pirates."

"Here," Leela said, fiddling with her wrist-thingy. She detached a small round pebble. "I've slaved this microphone to the Planet Express' exterior loudspeakers." She handed the mike to Fry. "It should carry your voice."

Fry took the little black object from Leela and looked at it like it was venomous Venusian crawler. He looked up at the pirates of the _Matei Pavel_, who mobbed the rigging and decks of the ship to stare at him, and Leela and Bender at the foot of the landing stairs of the Planet Express ship. He saw, beyond them, pirate ships maneuvering around and more crews watching the action on Smilin' Pratt's ship. His stomach fluttered in fear.

He also saw Leela smiling at him in encouragement, and he drew the strength he needed from her beautiful face.

"Fellow pirates!" Fry said loudly, and then winced as feedback shrieked. He coughed, and tried again. "Sorry – fellow pirates. My name is Fry; some of you know me." Fry waved to a few of the _Matei Pavel_'s crew. "You also know that the Captain…Captain Pratt trusted me." He looked down at his feet and then looked up again. "I don't know why. I don't know if it was a good idea. But he left something important in my hands, and I think that we pirates need to talk about it. I ask you for two simple things – first, a meeting of the Pirate Brethren. Right here, on this ship, at fifteen bells. Second, listen to me. Just give me a chance. After the Pirate Council meets, we can start again. But please listen to me."

Fry took a deep breath, and stared out into the pirates. They started to cheer.

Leela put her hand on his back and rubbed it gently. "Maybe this is going to work."

He turned and put his arms around her waist. "We've got two hours until fifteen bells. What do you want to do until then?"

Leela smiled, put her arms around his neck and leaned in, whispering in his ear, "You could really use a bath, you know."

-------

"I'm walking on sunshine, oh oh, and hmmm hmmm!" Fry sang off-key from the shower in the captain's cabin.

Leela sat cross-legged on her bed, listening to Fry sing and smiling to herself. _Whatever happens, I'll always have times like this_, she thought to herself. Fry was such an open, honest person. He wasn't…complicated. _What you see is what you get. But what you get is special_.

Not for the first time, Leela mentally kicked herself for hesitating for so long. _What was I thinking? I'm happier now than – well, ever. I have my ship, my Fry and I know my parents. In fact, my only regret is that I haven't gotten to tell them about Fry; they always liked him_.

Leela blushed as she thought about the 'girl talk' she had with her mother after the dinner where Fry had stopped a hallucinating, rampaging Bender. Turanga Munda had been quite explicit about what her daughter should do with the twentieth-century man…

Fry came out of the shower, towel wrapped around himself awkwardly. "You know, this hook thing isn't as easy to use as you would think," he said, trying to keep the towel from slipping down with one hook while holding his clothes in his hand.

Leela laughed, harder than she had in weeks. "I told you the Professor had the handcrafter gear set up in his lab. Let's get you a new hand."

Fry shook his head. "I want to have the hook for the Pirate Council meeting; that way maybe they'll think of me as one of their own."

Leela stood up and grabbed him around the waist. "Good thinking, Fry." She reddened slightly when she realized she hadn't been able to keep a note of surprise from her voice.

"It's okay, Leela," Fry assured her. "Thinking isn't my strong suite."

"You've been doing okay so far," she said, smiling.

"Thanks," he said quietly. Fry looked into her eye for a long moment. Then, almost with one movement, they closed their eyes and leaned into each other and –

"Leela!" The communicator on her wrist squawked.

Fry let out a frustrated groan as Leela pulled away from him with a quick, apologetic look. She spoke into her wrist-thingy. "Leela here. What's wrong, Hermes?"

"I dink the Pirate Council is gettin' ready to start, Leela. Is Fry wid you?"

"Yeah," she said with a glance at Fry. "It's not supposed to be for another hour."

Fry sighed. "Nobody said pirates were punctual."

Fry pulled on his shirt, and hopping on one foot, started to put his shorts on. Leela hid a smirk behind one hand and turned around to give him some privacy.

"I think LaBarbara will sew the collar back on my red jacket; she offered – "

Leela turned around as Fry was zipping up his jeans and put a finger on his lips. "Shh. I think you should wear this." She pulled a velvet greatcoat from under her bed. "I caught Bender trying to sneak it out of the captain's cabin aboard the _Matei Pavel_ – I suppose it was Pratt's. I…" She broke off, gathered her thoughts and spoke again. "I don't know what happened between you two, Fry, but I think he would have wanted you to wear it."

Leela handed him the greatcoat, holding her breath. Fry took it and studied it, a strange expression on his face. He looked up and smiled. "Thank you very much, Leela." He shook it open, and with Leela's help he put it on.

"That should impress the hell out of this Pirate Council," she said finally, looking him over. _Personally, I think it's a little gaudy_, she thought to herself, _but when in New Mars Vegas…_

Fry smoothed down the lace trim on his cuffs. "Interesting! Looks like something Liberace would have worn."

"I remember his coat being more sparkly in the museum tour," Leela said. "Well, this is what we got. It looks…good…on you."

Fry struck a pose with his hook out. Leela suppressed a chuckle, shaking her head. "Come on, ham bone." Her expression turned serious. "You haven't told me what you plan to do at this meeting, Fry."

"Convince the pirates to work with the cyborgs. Convince the cyborgs to work with the pirates. Reverse eight hundred years of history. Something like that."

Anxiety gripped Leela. "Fry, do you think – "

"I don't know, Leela," Fry said, anticipating her question. "But like you said, what other choice do we have?"

_Run_, Leela thought to herself. _I should take him now and run_. Some dark part of her said, _There's no reason for us to risk ourselves for these people. There's no reason for me to risk *him* for these people_. _Take your happiness and run, Leela!_

_But I would never be able to look myself in the mirror again_. She pushed the thoughts down, afraid that Fry would see them in her eye.

"Not many choices," she finally said to him. "Not many at all."

-------

A quick visit to the medical lab – while Dr. Zoidberg was distracted diving for fish – fixed Fry and Leela's injuriesand the two headed over to the _Matei Pavel_, which was tied to a bobbing Planet Express ship.

Five pirates sat in disheveled finery on the main deck, seats arranged in a semi-circle. A sixth seat was drawn up, but empty – Pratt's seat, Fry surmised. Behind them, pirates from the _Matei Pavel_ and beyond crowded on crates and barrels, and hung from rigging lines and netting. All eyes were focused on Fry – and Cambrien.

The cyborg was off to the side of the semi-circle, bound tightly and seated on a chair. Leela approached her and asked, "Comfy?"

Cambrien stared at her coolly. "What have you secured me with?"

"Diamondium thread," Leela said. "Practically unbreakable. Although feel free to try."

"Don't try using that delta-wave thingy, either," Fry added, "if you have one. I'm immune. Do relay what I'm about to say to the rest of the cyborgs, though."

Fry turned to the assembled pirates, took a deep breath, and starting talking.


	12. Chapter 12

Part 12

"Long, long ago, you and the cyborgs came to this world from somewhere else: Earth!" Fry started. Remembering his advice to the Madfellows, Fry had decided to lay it on thick. "I come from that same magical place, birthplace of us all." Something occurred to him, and he pointed at Kif, down in the powder room standing guard of over the bomb. The little green alien was visible through the hole in the deck that Cambrien had punched earlier. "Well, except for him. He's not human. He's a great guy, though. Say hello, Kif!"

The Amphibosian waved hesitantly to the assembled throng staring at him through the ragged gap in the deck.

"Oh Lord," Leela muttered to herself, covering her eye. "I can't watch this."

Fry paused, trying to gather his scattered thoughts. "Then…then…" Fry broke off, shaking his head. "This isn't working."

The pirates grumbled _en masse_, as their leaders looked on impassively. Leela held her breath, getting ready for a fight.

Fry started over. "I thought I'd try to convince you of what's happening with words – pretty words, but just words. But I'm no good with words, not pretty ones anyway. So I'm not going to try to convince you, or give you a speech or any of that." Fry took a deep breath. "My name is Philip J. Fry, and I'm just going to tell you what's going on, and what I think you need to do about it."

And so he did.

Fry talked as the sun dropped in the sky, telling the pirates about the wormhole, describing it as a great thunderhead in space. He told them of the gamma ray burst approaching them as a storm front of unimaginable power, enough to sweep every island clean and sink every ship on the sea. He talked about the cyborgs, their technology and how it was all just tools. Fry acknowledged, with a hitch in his voice, all that the cyborgs had done to the normal humans of the planet.

Fry spoke honestly and openly about how the cyborgs and the Normals would have to work together to survive. He talked of freedom for everyone, of no more Masters, of everyone pulling together. He understood it would require forgiveness from the normals; but forgiveness, he quoted his hazy memory of his mother, healed both the thrower and the catcher.

When he ran out of things to say, he just stopped and looked over the crowd as the ruddy sun bulged on the horizon.

"That's my piece," Fry finally added. "I hope it helps."

The pirate elders nodded. One – Fry thought his name was Sven – said, "You've given us much to think about, Philip J. Fry. What of the Masters, though?" he asked.

They turned toward the cyborg in their presence.

"A pretty speech," Cambrien said. Her monocular implant was locked on Leela, but her organic eye followed Fry. "It ignores the fact that the Enhanced are superior."

"Just in technology," Leela said. "After all," she smiled viciously, "_we_ do have _you_ tied up."

"Is that a human metaphor?" Cambrien asked. "Do you imply you have all of us Enhanced 'tied up' with the EMP bomb?"

"How do you manage to convey sarcasm without modulating your voice?" Leela asked in mock amazement. She got serious. "I think Fry has something to say to all of you cyborgs, anyway." She turned to him. "She's all yours, Fry."

"Uhhh…" Fry hesitated. He leaned in to whisper in Leela's ear.

"What?" Leela hissed to him.

"My mind. It's gone blank," Fry admitted.

"How's that different than usual?" Leela said peevishly.

Fry winced. "Well, not that unusual…."

Leela sighed. "I'll stall." She pulled away from Fry and turned to the bound cyborg. "Can the others hear us, Cambrien?"

"_All of us_ can hear you, Normal," Cambrien said with icy menace.

"Good," Leela said firmly. She put her hands on her hips. "Now, let's be clear about something. You can't overawe me with your flying machines and your glowing green eyes. Remember, my ancestors kicked your ancestors' butts right out of the Milky Way."

Leela gestured around her. "I don't think the whole 'overawe' thing's working so well here, either. It may have worked for the last few centuries, but if these pirates are any indication, these 'Normals' are getting pretty tired of the whole petty god thing."

"This was their first big attempt, and they came pretty darn close to shutting you all down. What are you going to do next time?" Leela challenged Cambrien.

The cyborg said nothing, but her eye shone an intense green, and cast a projection beam onto the deck. A greenish-tinted hologram appeared, two feet tall. It was a miniature replica of the cyborg leader from the great fortress, glaring up at Leela. "You presumptuous organic," it said.

"Oh yeah?" Leela said. "Unhappy with being treated as an equal?"

"Normal scum will not topple us, if that's what you imply!"

"Why not?" Leela smiled mischievously. "They're going to get as good as me, and I almost took out Cambrien here."

"Liar!" Cambrien managed to snarl, while not moving her holographic projector.

"Really?" The cyborg leader studied Leela for a long minute. "Do you gamble, Normal?"

"Huh?" Now it was Leela's turned to be nonplussed.

"Do you participate in wagers on events?"

"Sometimes." Leela was starting to get a nervous feeling in her gut.

"Then perhaps a wager is in order." The cyborg leader was nearly purring. "You versus Cambrien. If you defeat her, we will accede to your requests. If she defeats you, you will disarm the EMP bomb, give us the formula for this 'diamondium,' and leave this world, never to return."

"No weapons?" Leela asked. "Until someone yields?"

"Leela, you're not actually considering this, are you?" Fry asked anxiously.

Leela ignored Fry. "And you give the Normals equality?"

"Sure, why not?" The cyborg leader glibly said. "Cambrien will wipe the deck with you."

_Seems like a win-win_, Leela thought in the darkest part of her mind.

"Leela…" Fry said again.

Leela rolled her head on her neck and flexed her arms. "Oh, I think I can accept this challenge," she said.

"Do you have any idea what you're risking?" Fry axed.

She winked at Fry. "I know what I'm doing."

Fry was puzzled. "Was that a blink or a wink?"

_Damn this one eye_, Leela thought. "It was a wink. I can take her, Fry."

"Right," Fry said doubtfully.

Leela narrowed her eye at Fry. "I have a plan, Fry. I can take her." _I think_, she mentally added.

Leela drew her laser pistol and handed it to Fry. "Zap her if she tries anything." She repeated the instruction via her wrist-thingy to Amy, who was in the turret on the Planet Express ship, looking worried.

Leela pulled out the remote for the restraints, and released the super-tough diamondium threads. The glittering crystalline threads fell in a cloud-like heap at Cambrien's feet. The cyborg rose slowly, then smiled, shark-like, at Leela. "I am ready to begin whenever you are, _Normal_," Cambrien said.

-------

The pirate spectators formed a ragged ring on the deck thirty feet wide, ready and waiting for any treachery from the cyborg. When she stepped into the ring, the crowd hissed at her. She looked around at them with imperious disdain, then pointedly ignored them and fixed her gaze on Leela as she walked forward.

The starship captain had stripped down to her standard black pants and white tanktop. Her long hair, normally in a ponytail, had been put up in a bun and gel-fixed in place to deny her opponent any advantage. Leela took up an Arcturan kung-fu stance and smiled lopsidedly at her opponent. "Ready, Cambrien?"

"Prepare for serious injury," Cambrien said flatly, and leaped at Leela in a blur of speed.

Leela rolled to the side and kicked at Cambrien's knee. The cyborg dodged her blow, but landed on the deck on her shoulder, rolled forward and came up in a flash.

_Remember, Leela_, the mutant thought to herself. _I'm faster but she's stronger. If I can wear her down…_Leela ducked a kick Cambrien aimed at her head, slipping under the cyborg's guard to throw a punch at her kidney area. Leela hit Cambrien's torso hard enough to crack the concrete bricks she practiced with at the gym, but the blow seemed to have no effect on the cyborg.

_Then again, maybe I'm not going to wear her down…_

Cambrien punched at Leela's chest. Leela sidestepped the blow, grabbed Cambrien's arm and flipped her.

Or tried to. Leela merely succeeded in lifting her own feet from the deck. With a grim smile, Cambrien whirled around and threw Leela against the mainmast. She crashed against the wooden pillar and fell to a heap on the deck.

"Leela!" Fry shouted in fear and started pushing his way through the crowd toward where his love lay crumpled on the floor.

Leela stood up carefully, shook her head and narrowed her eye at the cyborg who waited for her with insulting casualness. _I'm NOT going to let Fry down_, she said to herself. "Hey Cambrien," she called out, "what the Robot Devil do you weigh? A diet might be a good idea."

The female cyborg growled, her implant flaring green.

Leela smiled and leaped back into the circle.

The two combatants danced around each other for a few more minutes, trading blows and blocks with dizzying speed. Suddenly, Leela was crouched low delivering a flurry of punches when Cambrien grabbed at her with both hands.

Leela hesitated and the cyborg had her around the neck and lifted her in the air, squeezing hard. "Prepare to die, Normal!" Cambrien growled.

_Here's your chance_, Leela thought to herself over the excruciating pain. She swung her arm into Cambrien's face, bashing into the monocular implant with her wrist-thingy.

The implant cracked and the lens shattered. Cambrien staggered a bit, but kept up the iron pressure on Leela's windpipe.

Leela fought to keep consciousness as her vision went gray. She reached up with her other hand, where she had palmed the bracelet her father had made for her all those years before, and shoved the metal plate into the implant socket.

All Leela knew was that there was a flash and she was flying through the air – and the pressure on her neck was blessedly gone. She picked herself a second time from the deck, and saw Cambrien lying six feet away from her, convulsing uncontrollably.

Leela limped over to where the cyborg thrashed, the smell of ozone in the air. Turning to a nearby pirate, she commandeered his ceramic dagger and leaned down over Cambrien. She dug the point into the implant and pulled out her bracelet which, she noted sadly, was slightly charred and melted. "I'll be taking that back, thank you," she said. "It has sentimental value."

Cambrien lay still, her flesh eye closed.

She looked up, facing the pirates, and raised her hands in the air.

The assembled pirates erupted into a raucous cheer that boomed over the water to the other pirate ships. Fry ran forward, relief evident in his face. He grabbed her and hugged her tight. "Don't _ever_ do that to me again!" he said.

"It was a piece of cake," she assured him. She wiped some blood from her face and winced in pain. "Well, maybe not that easy…"

Fry pulled her to him and, as the pirates chanted her name, they leaned forwards -

"…Uh, guys?" Amy said over the loudspeaker from the Planet Express ship.

"WHAT?" both Leela and Fry shouted.

"I think you should listen to this!" Amy cut in another feed to the loudspeakers.

" – will never give in to your demands!" the voice screeched.

"I think he's upset," Leela murmured.

"We will crush you impudent Normals!" The cyborg leader raved.

Leela snapped on her wrist-thingy's comm unit. It was, she was relieved to see, still working. "What happened to our agreement?" she asked archly.

"No agreement with scum can hold the Enhanced!"

Leela couldn't see him, but she imagined the cyborg leader frothing at the mouth. _Do cyborgs spit?_ she wondered idly. _And I seem pretty calm about this – do I have a head injury?_

"We will scour the seas with your innards, Normal! We will – " The cyborg's rant was suddenly interrupted.

"We will do _nothing_," Cambrien said, rising from the deck like a wraith. Sparks still flew from her scorched and shattered implant, and blood ran freely from her ears and matted her black hair. She stepped stiffly forward toward Fry and Leela.

Leela sighed internally and slowly took up a stance.

Cambrien said, "Our fight is over, Turanga Leela. You won." Cambrien bowed to Leela.

Leela looked at the battered cyborg in amazement, and then returned the bow.

"You do not have the authority to make any such decision," the cyborg leader's voice said over the loudspeaker. _Now he really is spluttering_, Leela thought.

Cambrien smiled broadly, but again without warmth. "Nor do you."

She turned to face them all. "I say this out loud so that the Normals may hear it. You are no longer the leader of our Great Council; our gestalt has selected another."

There was only crackling silence from the loudspeaker, then another cyborg's voice came over the carrier wave. Leela thought for a moment, and then recognized it as the red-haired cyborg that had been somewhat civil with them during their meeting with the cyborg leader.

"Attention all Normals within the sound of my voice. We are projecting this announcement over all public address and loudspeaker systems within our domains. This is a very important announcement."

Everyone on the pirate ship became still. Everyone in the pirate flotilla waited in expectant silence.

"A grave threat approaches our planet," the voice of the new cyborg leader continued. "A lethal gamma ray burst will be upon us in eight years. It will take the entire resources of our world, material, personal and moral to save life on this planet. It will take all of us, working together, to do this.

"We Masters are ready to share the burden with the Normals of this world. A certain faction within the Enhanced has always felt that more…responsibility to Normals would be healthy for our combined polity. The gestalt whole of the Enhanced now is forced to agree with this faction.

"We are ready to transition the Normals to full independence. The current power structure will be retired; a transitional authority must be established. It would appear the Pirate Council is the only Normal institution that can fill the void until a new government is in place.

We are ready to all be equals, because only by standing together will we all survive."

The loudspeaker fell to hissing silence again. The _Matei Pavel_ was filled with the murmurings of the crew. Cambrien spoke to the shocked Leela and Fry. "Does our grant of freedom meet the requirements of our wager?"

Fry said, "It's an offer, not a grant. Let's see if we take it." He turned to the assembled pirate council. "The cyborgs are willing to step down as Masters, and let the Pirate Council govern normal humans for now. Are we ready to stop our war against them?"

Leela unobtrusively made sure her comm was picking up this exchange and re-broadcasting it over the loudspeakers.

The elder pirates looked at each other, and then Sven asked, "What do you think, Philip J. Fry?"

Fry thought for a moment, and said "I think you'd be crazy not to take this chance." He grinned at the older man.

Sven nodded. "I agree." He turned to the other four council members. "So say we all?"

They responded in formal unison. "So say we all!"

The roar from the ships of the Pirate Fleet was deafening.


	13. Chapter 13

Part 13

The next two weeks were a blur. The Professor, assisted by Scruffy the janitor, was in the Great Fortress of the cyborgs almost the entire time, working with cyborg material scientists on plans for the mass production of the diamondium sheets that would be made in orbit and placed into the necessary framework. Amy and Kif were in orbit, working on orbital mining and manufactories with a mixed group of cyborgs and normal humans – who were learning, for the first time, to live and work in space.

Hermes and LaBarbara pursued their own project, deep in the archives of the Great Fortress.

Leela and Fry had flown about the planet in the Planet Express ship, meeting with various pirates leaders. Councils were springing up on every island, bringing together guild leaders and others, but the central force in each were the pirate crews and their captains. They were relishing their new role, even as they had to surrender the plundering of merchant ships which earlier had occupied them.

Bender drank continuously and kept to himself on the ship – the cyborgs unnerved him, the normal humans didn't trust him and he couldn't find anything worth stealing. He was a very unhappy bending unit.

Their travel also gave Leela and Fry an opportunity to hide the EMP bomb. The Professor had devised a spray-on coating that veiled the trigger's radiation signature from detection, and with the Pirate's Council's approval Fry had stashed the bomb in a lava cave on a deserted island in the middle of the sea. Only a few pirates knew its location; only select others knew the arming code. No one, except for Fry and Leela, know both. The EMP bomb remained the Normal's best leverage if matters with the cyborgs deteriorated, but no one wanted the device in the reach of any crazed or disgruntled human when the fate of the world was still to be decided and the cyborgs' technology so badly needed.

It was at yet another long, boring congratulatory fish fry that Leela and Fry got the news. They had visited their twentieth (or twenty-first?) island and a pirate speaker was telling the crowd the story of Leela's fight with Cambrien, and what he had seen that day. Fry didn't recognize the sailor, and doubted he had been on the _Matei Pavel_, but didn't say anything out of politeness (once Leela had lectured him firmly about etiquette).

Leela tried to cover a yawn as the speech droned on. _I wonder if I can slip in a game of tetris_, she thought, looking at her wrist-thingy. Just then she was startled to full awareness by her wrist-thingy's alarm. She checked the comm and a text message was scrolling across the screen. PRIORITY CALL FROM HERMES CONRAD – TAKE ON A SECURE LINE.

She grabbed Fry, made their apologies and scampered back to where the Planet Express ship was parked in a field. Once they were on the bridge, she activated the videophone. Hermes appeared, looking tired but triumphant. "Right now, I'm happier dan a green snake at a sugar cane party, employees," he said.

Leela shook her head, trying to ignore the simile the bureaucrat had employed. "Why's that?"

Hermes grinned. "Yon EMP bomb has been boderin' me, Leela, as well as dat medallion o' President McNeal."

"Pratt _did_ mention a trader, a Hamm or Hammon, on Yala Island," Fry said.

Hermes nodded. "Thank Jah we had dat lead. I was looking at tariff records for de last three decades from Yala, and I found some interesting discrepancies."

"Oh for Jah's sake, husband," LaBarbara broke in. "Tell dem what yah found, already."

"Lay off me, wife!" Hermes sighed. "Skippin' over a fascinatin' talk about the forms dese cyborgs use, I can tell yah that six years ago, traders from de stars visited Yala Island."

Fry and Leela gasped. "What! How?"

"Seems dat on a cycle of twenty-four or so years, dese traders come from the sky and trade with the Yala merchants. 'Tis a local tradition, which they keep very secret from the Masters. I don't know how de traders get past the cyborg defense screen, but de do. And dese traders must have contact wit Earth!" Hermes could barely contain his excitement.

"Twenty-four years, huh?" Fry said. "That means we only have to wait…uh…"

Leela sighed. "Eighteen more years, Fry." She turned back to Hermes. "We can't wait that long, Hermes."

"We don't have to! One of the stories I dug up on Yala describes de stars dese traders come from." Hermes fiddled with his end of the connection, and a woodcut drawing of the night sky seen from Yala Island appeared on screen. One of the stars, high in the sky, was surrounded with sigils and other designs.

Leela called up the star charts the Professor had prepared, and zoomed in on the sun in question. She frowned. "Eight thousand light years away – and in the opposite direction from the Milky Way."

"What does it matter, Leela? Dey must have a wormhole or sometin' back to Earth!"

"It seems like our only lead, Leela," Fry said to her. He rested his hook on the top of her seat-back. Leela stared at a physical reminder of what their trip had cost them so far.

_Home_, she thought wistfully. She turned back to the videophone. "Okay, pack it up, Hermes. Get the Professor ready, too. I'll call Amy and Kif and arrange for a pickup in orbit. We'll get the ship ready and the tanks topped off again. Let's go find these mysterious traders and get ourselves home!"

They all cheered, and Fry asked, "Do these guys have a name, Hermes?"

"All kinds, according to what I found, but de most common name I see is – Ophidians."

"Ophidians." Fry rolled the name around on his tongue. He smiled brightly. "Sounds friendly!"

-------

The door to Leela's cabin hissed open, and Fry stepped in, flexing his new looked up from her diary and smiled at the twentieth-century man. "Hello, Fry. How is it?"

"Feels funny," Fry said. "I was actually getting kind of attached to the hook thing."

Leela took both of his hands in hers and smiled at him. "I wasn't," she said. "I'm glad you're whole again." She let go of his hands and patted a spot next to her on the bed.

Fry sat down and she leaned into him, the two sitting in quiet for long minutes. She looked up at him and saw that he was staring out her picture window at the dwindling blue-brown planet behind them. His eyes were a thousand miles away.

"Nixon-buck for your thoughts," she axed him softly.

He smiled wryly and looked at her. _All those years pining and here she is next to me…_"You'd laugh at me."

"Fry, I'd never – well, rarely – okay, I won't laugh at you this time."

"I was thinking of the sea. The way it looked before a storm, the way it smelled at five bells, just before the sun rose. The spray on my skin when I was hanging in the rigging. I…I kinda miss it." He looked abashed.

Leela put her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "You've always been a dreamer, Fry. It's one of the things I love about you. It's okay to miss the sea."

He hugged her back, stroking her long purple hair with his new hand and reveling in the sensation. "Don't worry, Leela. There's no place I'd rather be than right here with you. I've dreamed of being with you since the moment I saw you, and I won't be going anywhere."

He laughed. "You know, I don't think I'm as excited as the rest of you to go looking for these traders."

"Why not?"

"Because home, for me, is wherever you are." He squeezed her again. "I'm just happy to be with you. Throw in my other friends, and it's all good."

Leela murmured something into his shoulder as they held each other by the light of the shrinking world behind them. She looked out the window toward the Ophidian's star, trying to get a view of their destination and hoping the way home laid with them.

Fry's gaze, however, was still on the misty seas of Cyberia.

Epilogue

The cyborg stopped outside of the rank, crowded tavern and looked up at the rudely carved sign. Like most she had seen recently, it had been renamed. It featured a crudely carved cyborg, on its hands and knees, being kicked firmly in the rear by a one-eyed woman with a long ponytail. Under the carving was the name in misshapen letters – "The Comeuppance."

Cambrien sighed and stepped into the tavern. She noticed it was dimly lit with new electric lights, which had been appearing everywhere on Prime Island lately. _A sign of the times_, she thought.

Almost immediately, the laughter and shouting inside died down. There were about thirty Normals inside, pirates, merchant sailors, thieves, ladies-of-the-evening and rowdies. All were staring at her. She ignored them and walked up to the tavern-keeper, who continued polishing a dirty blown-glass mug with an even dirtier rag while studiously avoiding eye contact with the cyborg.

"Is there a pirate named Chan here?" she asked the man. He ignored her some more.

Cambrien had been to eighteen taverns this evening alone, looking for Chan. Cyborgs didn't get tired, but she _was_ getting peeved. She turned to the crowd. "I am looking for Chan, who served on the _Matei Pavel_. I have a reward for him."

"Or do ye have revenge in mind, tin lady?" a pirate called out raucously. "We know what happened to you Masters on the _Matei Pavel_."

Cambrien didn't enlighten him on the…_personal_ nature of her encounter with the _Matei Pavel_. She simply said, "I have a reward for him."

Silence greeted her again, and then a man let out a long sigh from the far end of the bar. He stood up and turned to her. "I'm Chan. You've been looking for me for quite a while."

"I have," she agreed. "You've been avoiding me for quite a while." She studied him and matched his face to the description the orange-haired human had given her. It was him.

"Why?" he asked her bluntly. While he was armed with a ceramic short sword, he made no move to threaten her.

"A mutual friend asked me to deliver something to you – and to make sure you got home."

"Home?" the man sounded plaintive. "You can help me get home?"

Cambrien gestured Chan to a table away from the crowd. While they were still aware of her, they had started back to their own drinking and carousing. The cyborg and the pirate sat at a table. Almost by reflex, a tavern girl came by and plopped two glass mugs filled with ale before them, and looked defiantly at Cambrien. Without changing her expression, the cyborg took two soft iron coins from her belt and gave them to the maid. "Go away," she said.

The tavern girl went away, taking the excessive payment with her.

Chan took a large gulp of the ale, never taking his eyes from the raven-haired cyborg across from him. He had never been this close to a Master. _She's actually quite lovely_, he realized with a start. "So," he said, "who sent you again?"

"You knew Philip J. Fry?" she asked

Chan nodded ruefully. "We were friends on the ship. I knew he was going to be somebody, but I had no idea…" He laughed.

"Philip J. Fry asked me to make sure you got home, and to give you this." She pulled out a small box, and opened it.

Chan gasped. Inside were three heavy ingots of pure copper – a fortune's worth. He looked around worriedly.

"Don't worry," Cambrien said, shutting the lid. "I'll protect you."

"But what – "

"Your share of the bounty the captain of the _Matei Pavel_ declared. Fry was quite generous – with our funds, of course," Cambrien said wryly.

"So why did you come?" Chan asked.

"I told you – Fry asked us to deliver your treasure, and to make sure you got back to your home island and your mother."

Chan shook his head. "No, why did _you_ come?"

Cambrien pondered his question. _This Normal is smarter than he seems_, she thought to herself. _Handsome, too, in that raw Normal manner_. Finally, she answered him truthfully. "I wanted to meet you so that you could tell me more about Fry. I would like to know more of the man Turanga Leela loves."

"Turanga Leela? That was Fry's girl, the one he talked about all the time."

Cambrien nodded again. "She is quite impressive."

"Huh." Chan pondered that for a moment. "Is it true that she beat a Master, with no weapons? I'd love to hear about Fry's girl – she must be something special."

"She did, and she is." Cambrien decided not to add to her comment.

Chan thought about his situation some more, and tucked the treasure case into his pouch. "Well, I can't really turn all this down, can I? Treasure, a way home, and a chance to learn more about Fry and Leela." He stuck his hand out to Cambrien.

She had to do a nanosecond search of her social mores database to realize what Chan was doing. _Cheeky little Normal_, she thought with a smile. She took his hand and shook it, resisting the urge to squeeze with her Enhanced strength.

She searched her database again for an appropriate quote, and said, "Chan, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

THE END


End file.
